Baka No Test Ultimates
by Titanmaster 117
Summary: Changes have come to Fumizuki Academy, though some are more for the worse than the better. Old secrets and new faces are revealed, and old truths hidden away are once more brought into the light, as a dark curtain comes over Fumizuki, enveloping all in its wake (OCs, OOCs, mature themes, you've been warned).
1. Prologue: You, me, and a new beginning

**I do not own Baka and Test. All rights go to the original creators.**

* * *

 _1_ _month ago..._

* * *

"I just don't see why I had to go through with-"

"Mayor, it's time to get with the times. You've been delaying this for to long. It had to happen eventually."

"But why now?"

"Why later? Don't ask stupid questions that you know the answer too. This should have happened long ago if not for your constant medalling. So be thankful that it's happening now, while your still around."

"Is that a threat?"

"I'll let you figure it out."

* * *

 _3 weeks ago_ _..._

* * *

BETA RUN INITIALISING... CODING INITIALIZING... PROTOCOLS DOWLOADING... FIREWALLS DOWNLOADING... COMBAT ROUTINES PROCESSING... PROTOCOLS DOWNLOADED

CHIMERA PRODUCED POLICE COMBAT DROID LM280 INITIALIZING

PROTOCOL ONE- PROTECT ALL CIVILIAN INDIVIDUALS FROM HARM

PROTOCOL TWO- REMOVE ALL DANGERS TO SOCIETY

PROTOCOL THREE- KEEP THE PEACE IN THE STREETS

PROTOCOL FOUR- ARREST AND DETAIN ALL CRIMINALS TO SOCIETY

PROTOCOL FIVE- DO NOT HARM CIVILIANS UNLESS THEY POSE A THREAT TO THIS UNIT'S EXISTANCE

PROTOCOL X- OVERRIDE PROTOCOL ONE TO FIVE. THIS PROTOCOL EXTENDS TO ALL SYSTEMS RUNNING UNDER THIS NETWORK. TARGETS KING AND QUEEN ARE TO BE PROTECTED AT ALL TIMES. ALL INDIVIDUALS WHO THREATEN KING ARE TO BE IMMEDIATELY EXECUTED ON THE SPOT. FALIURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE SELF TERMINATION. WHEN KING OR QUEEN ARE THREATENED, ALL OTHER PROTOCOLS ARE TO BE DISREGARDED. CIVILIANS ARE TO DISREGARDED, AND ARE EXPENDABLE. IF CIVILIANS INTERFERE WITH PROTECTING KING AND QUEEN, THEY ARE TO BE IMMEDIATELY EXECUTED ON THE SPOT

CODING APPROVED

* * *

 _2 weeks ago..._

* * *

"CONTROLLER, ALL PROTOTYPES HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO BE MOVED TO OUR NEW HEADQUARTERS, CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION, IN A POPULATION CENTRE DESIGNATED AS FUMIZUKI CITY, BY THE ORDERS OF ONI ENTERPRISES CEO YUI SHIMADA."

 _ **"HOW LONG WILL THE CONSTRUCTION TAKE? CYBERNETIC AUGMENTATION OF THE VOLUNTEERS IS STILL BEING CARRIED OUT."**_

"CONSTRUCTION HAS BEEN CALCULATED TO BE 3.451 MONTHS, HOWEVER CEO YUI SHIMADA ORDERS THAT ALL PROTOTYPES MOVED INTO THE NEW HEADQUARTERS BY 2.6 MONTHS."

 _ **"THAT IS ACCEPTABLE. FULL CYBERNETIC AUGMENTATION OF THE VOLUNTEERS WILL BE FINISHED IN 1.56 MONTHS. CYBERNETIC AUGMENTATION TESTING WILL BE PERFECTED BY 1.87 MONTHS. INFORM CEO YUI SHIMADA THAT THERE WILL BE NO DELAYS FROM OUR OPERATIONS."**_

"AFFIRMATIVE."

* * *

 _5 days ago..._

* * *

"If the rumours are true, then our operations is in jeopardy. We have spent years turning our small group of yakuza wannabes into an empire, and now it's all gonna be threatened by a bunch of tin cans."

"Would you relax? We'll be fine. They haven't traced us to any crimes yet, and we've been doing this for years."

"We don't have any hackers with us, and what if they find our Coca farm and trafficking ops-"

"Relax, we've already brought out- What was it? 1, 2, 3, 4... 12, 13, 14... Half. Half of the local law enforcement, so please, for the love of god, stop worrying about, well, everything."

"It's not the cops that I'm worried about."

* * *

 _4 days ago..._

* * *

"And from the ashes of the false Christ, the Anti will rise, it's hunger for life unquenchable. And so will begin the Antiholocaust, where all life and light will be claimed, and we will rise as gods alongside the great consumer, and become one of the Forever undying."

"However, fear, my brothers and sisters, for there shall be great challengers. Heretics who will test the grace and might of our lords and saviours. We must stand against them, my siblings, and rise against the fabled holocaust of our kind."

"The Eugenesis Epoch."

* * *

 _4 days ago..._

* * *

"So we're just letting the robots take over, why?"

"Chief, the machines aren't taking over, they're gonna be assisting us. Fumizuki city is the last major town in the country to be industrialized. It's called getting with the times. Besides, it's to late now, anyway. It's already been approved by the mayor. It's happening, wherever we want it or not."

"Still though, couldn't we have just held it of for a little bit long-"

"Chief, it's 2022, the mayor's already been holding off for so long. We need all the help we can get anyway in dealing with the corruption in the force, and the Shi No Tenshi cartel. Trust me on this, this is for the best."

"I'm gonna hold you to that, constable. You can trust me on that."

* * *

 _4 days ago..._

* * *

"Black Viking, divisions Charlie, Whiskey, Foxtrot, Tango, and Sierra have returned from their assignments. Missions successful. All threats neutralized."

"Very good. Has our involvement been removed?"

"Affirmative. All witnesses eliminated, and evidence of Disciple's existence have been destroyed."

"Excellent. Our agents across the globe report that all is going as planned. Notify Overlord and tell them that all is going as planned."

* * *

 _3 days ago..._

* * *

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Absolutely not. But we're doing it anyway."

 **"You know, Sebastian, Diego has a-"**

"New names from now on, _Mateuz_."

 **" _sigh,_ Andre has a point. This isn't exactly the most well thought out plan (Not that you ever do think things through). Not really A-Team style, like our usual old antics."**

I know, but it's the best one that I can think of. We've become way too public. Too noisy. It's time to step back into the shadows. Besides, when my mistake comes to bite me in the ass- like they always seem to do- then you can tell me that you told me so."

 **"It's just that, well, Fumizuki Academy has gained a somewhat, questionable reputation..."**

"We know Mateuz, which is why we're enrolling in there. Trust me, with all the other freaks and outcasts that have found shelter there, we'll blend right in."

"And what about the regular discrimination in the school?"

"Samu... Jack, please, we'll cross that bridge once we get there."

* * *

 _2 days ago..._

* * *

"I heard that Chimera Industries and ONI are moving their headquarters here. Maybe we'll get a discount on robot servants because we're in the same city as where they're made."

"I highly doubt that, Amy. Besides, we're dirt poor. The only 'luxuries' we can get are what we steal from Class A. I mean, it's probably all cheap crap anyway, so, well you get my point."

"Huh, I haven't seen you in a bad mood like this in a while, Riley. I mean, you're always in one, don't get me wrong, but I've known you long enough to be able to tell the differences. What's on your mind?"

"No need to brag, Miss Modern Day Sherlock. _Sigh_ , It's just that, all the natural beauty that Fumizuki city once had in going to be ruined, because of a deluge of modernisation, and, I'm just pulling devil's advocate here, it might all go wrong. Horribly. And painfully. While on fire."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. The problem is too great for two singular individuals. We have our own problems to deal with, like the constant harassment and bullying an' stuff. Besides, I've heard that the mayor's been trying to delay all of this futuristic stuff for as long as he could, so his city could still retain it's natural appeal."

"Well I can see where he's coming from."

"Hey, you've got- The makeup's running. One of your cuts is showing."

"Ah, crap. Well, just have to hope that no one points out how macabre I look."

* * *

 _1 day ago..._

* * *

"Golden crown, this is Viper One and Two. We are in position of the target building. Multiple bogeys in the vicinity of the building."

 _"Affirmative, Viper One, local Ukrainian Separatists_ _are moving in to provide support, over."_

"Copy that, Golden crown. Viper One and Two going dark. Out."

"Goddamn Russians are everywhere. They've swarmed the place. Got ONI tech with them. We'll stick out like crumbs on a plate. Stealth isn't an option."

"Then we'll just kick in the front door, rescue our man Roman, get out, and be back home by tea time."

"... you seem kinda fidgety, Raven."

"... I haven't seen my nephew in so long, Clyde. I'm scared that he'll grow up without me. Hell, I'm not allowed to contact him, so he won't really know if I'm even alive."

"What about the rest of your family?"

"My sister and I don't get along, and the last I heard from my niece, she's at Harvard university, and I'm pretty sure she hates me. Lil' Aki's the only real family I've got."

"Well, I'm sure that Shepperd might be able to move the military convention to Fumizuki City, and then you can see your nephew. Just your nephew, and his Aunty Raven, and maybe his honorary Uncle Clyde, as well."

"Oh, sod off, you old bastard."

"Hehe... hey, gunfire. Looks like friendly forces have been engaged."

"Let's kick this off, then."

* * *

 _Unknown..._

* * *

"Soon, my love. Very soon indeed..."


	2. The first day: A new arrival

_3rd October 2022_

* * *

 **Japan- Fumizuki City  
** **Fumizuki Academy-year 2 class 2-A**

* * *

As Youko Takahashi led the 4 new students (3, technically) down the hallway to her class room, she wondered how her pupils would react to the rather strange group of individuals. They would definably be a bit hostile to the strange group, and perhaps a little fearful of what looked like the leader of them. He did look like a rather threatening individual, if she said so herself.

She looked behind her at the four individuals, only to see the leader of them twisting around a 6mm steel rod with relative ease, while the others just kept too themselves, not paying any heed to the impressive strength that was on display in front of them, as if it were normal.

'Great', she thought to herself, 'Just what this school needs. Another student with the power to break every bone in a person's body.'

Youko sighed to herself. Somehow, the principal is able to pretty much sweep any major incident that happens at the school under the rug, as if it never happened. Don't get her wrong, she had complete faith in Principal Toudou, but sometimes even Youko had to question the methods, and the reasons, behind some of the things that the Principal did (not that she said it to her face however). hell, even Nishimura, the Ironman himself, had a few doubts about the Principal, and this was Nishimura she was talking about.

Eventually, they arrived at the entrance of class A, and Youko then looked at the small group with a stern face.

"Wait here", she said, "I'll let you know when you can come in."

 **"Whatev, teach** ", said one of the group, " **We do what we want. Whenever, whatever, whoever, whyever, however.** "

The leader of the group then smacked him in the back of the head, and looked at Youko and said, "Ignore the idiots. I'm pretty sure their parents dropped them as children."

"...Right", sighed Youko as she slid open the door. This was going to be a long day...

* * *

In the top tiered class in year 2, the 100 students and over that made up class A were going about their daily business.

"-New AI is being added into the ESB system-"

"-Robots are going to take over. it'll be like Terminator-"

"-Gonna lose all of it's beauty. Damn shame, it is-"

"-Between Class B and Class E. Wi-Fi's down, so I'm gonna watch when it kicks off-"

"-Giving out scholarships to whoever can beat us. I say let 'em come. We'll kick them down like always-"

"-Some presentation starting up after school-"

"-Got a few second wave students over there talking to Higa and her goons. Kinoshita's gonna be in for a time when-"

"-Hope my suppliers got new pics of Hideyoshi-"

"-Where's roly poly? I've got to give him a proper freaking greeting-"

"-Still clearing up from that test of courage 2 weeks ago-"

"-Called the Burners. Some revolutionary internet trend starting up-"

"-Took the last cheesecake-RILEY! Who took the last cheesecake? It was labelled. I put a label on it..."

In a dark corner of the room, however, behind a pile of disused chairs, there sat a girl with a huge closet love for all things Yaoi, closet nerd, which helped to shelter her issues of none of your business, cop. You got a warrant?

This girl was currently reading her favourite Yaoi manga (Also none of your business, copper. I don't see a warrant), and was making sure not to draw attention to herself, as to avoid anyone from learning her secret obsession (Though it wasn't exactly hard to figure out, mind you. Pretty much everyone in the class knew).

This was Yuuko Kinoshita, ambassador of class A, and extremely prideful member of the top ten students in year 2. Usually, on a day like this, in a free study period, she would be, well, either studying, boasting about how perfect her class was, or simply doing what she is doing now.

Today however, something felt, well, off. she didn't quite know how to put it specifically, but it just felt that something was wrong... Or, right?... Augh, brain hurt.

Yuuko found herself drifting away from her manga, and tried to concentrate on what specifically that feeling was. Was it loss? Pride? Doubt? She just couldn't quite place her finger on it.

Suddenly, she heard the door from all the way across the other side of the large room open, and looked up from behind the chairs to see Ms. Takahashi enter the room, and approach the large podium at the front centre of the room.

Quickly, Yuuko got out from her hiding spot, and yelled, "EVERYONE! TO YOUR SEATS! NOW!" The loud voice might've seemed like too much if an outsider looked in, but nowadays, she needed to use her big girl voice just to get half the class to listen.

Sure enough, though they were leisurely about it, the students of Class A heard the message and got to their seats, some of them giving Yuuko the stink eye, but then some of them who saw the people giving the stink eye gave them the stink eye in return, with quite a bit of physical aggression taking place.

Yuuko herself then sat down at her desk, then took note of Riley and Amy glumly walking to their seats, still probably annoyed by the fact that they had accidently made their Steal-Food-From-Class-A-Scheme almost public, and Yuuko had had to confiscate all of their bounty and scold them about it, though she doubted that they took it to heart, and probably hated her a bit more now. Yuuko's heart panged a bit at that. She couldn't really find it in her to blame them for hating her. Not after what happened in the first few days, as well as what happened to Rika. She really didn't like that they hated her, but like she said, she couldn't really blame them that much for it.

To her side, she could see Akane Higa, so called leader of the Renunciates, staring creepily at her sister, Koharu Higa, who seemingly didn't see it, and was with her unfaithful as hell boyfriend (Then again, neither of them were faithful to each other to begin with), Fujio Bando, who, with the rest of his group, first glared at the Harrison siblings, and then Bando himself turned to Yuuko, and gave her a creepy smile, to which Yuuko huffed and looked away. She would be damned before she gave that creep the time of day. There was a reason that she always said that she loved most of the people in her class. Bando and his little cabal of morons (As well as Akane) were that little group of people that didn't make the cut.

Shouko, who possibly hadn't been paying attention to the commotion, or simply didn't think that it was her problem, simply took her time with gliding across the classroom, before sitting down. It would honestly be accurate to say that Yuuko had a bit of a woman-crush on her. How she was seemingly not afraid of anything at all, how she was practically the model Class A student and valedictorian, and how she was utterly ruthless in getting what she wanted. Now if only she would stop fawning over that moron Yuuji in class F. There were so many other men, like Kubo, for example, that would be more than happy to have her. Well, not Kubo, obviously, because of his homosexuality, and his own choice of affection as of late, but still, it didn't hurt to have him as an example.

"Thank you Yuuko", said Ms. Takahashi as she stood behind the podium at the front of the large room, the large screen behind her lighting up with her own face, "A slight bit unnecessary, but appreciated. Now, some of you may have heard by now that some new students will be joining us from now on. Well that is correct. 3 new-"

 **"4!"** yelled a voice from behind the sliding door in a strange accent. Somehow, the voice sounded uniquely unnatural.

"- _Sigh._ 4 New students will be joining class A, so please make them comfortable."

She then looked at the door, "You can come in now."

The door then opened, and 3 students wearing the Fumizuki academy uniform entered, giving off quite the impression to the rest of the class.

The first to walk through the door was quite tall, and had a relative build to him. The outline of muscles could be seen beneath his jumper, and his skin was slightly tanned, and also rough looking. On his face, it became apparent that he had heterochromia, as his right eye was a grassy green, while the left was a blood red. His brown hair was messy and disorganized, and he had a long trail of hair covering his left eye, which extended down to just above his lip. What was unnerving was that he wore a completely serious face, and looked like he had not genuinely smiled in a long time. Weirder still, he gave off a vibe that was both animalistic, yet said he knew exactly what he is doing.

The next person to walk through the door had an black, unzipped hoodie on, with what looked like a skull drawn onto it in red. He seemed to be holding onto the hand of the person in front, as in his right hand was a walking stick, and on his head, he wore what looked like sunglasses, all pointing to the conclusion that he was blind. His skin was a chocolate colour, and his black hair was also messy and disorganized, and even his clothes looked creased and messy.

The last person to walk through the door seemed the most normal looking out of the three. He had a glove on his right hand, and wore a long sleeved jumper with the Fumizuki academy logo on it. He was relatively tanned, and his skin seemed smooth and soft, though there were faint outlines of muscle, though not as much as the first person. He had natural green eyes, short, silky green hair, a tattoo on his cheek which said 'Naturaleza mejor' and seemed to have a small smile on his lips. Some of the girls that were sitting down started to squeal at the site of him, while Yuuko simply raised her eyebrow at them. No other boy had gotten the girls to giggle and squeal like schoolyard children when they just got a piece of candy, but he didn't look that special. Huh. Hormones must not be acting right, if she was the exception.

Still, Yuuko felt a sense of familiarity from them, like she knew them. But from where, she did not know.

As they got to the podium, the first person looked behind him, then to the green haired student, "Andre?"

"Que?" Asked Andre in a Spanish accent.

"Where's Mateuz?"

Andre looked behind him and shrugged.

"Huh, I don't- Mateuz! I can see you in the window! Come on in. Everyone's nice", he then looked at the rest of the students sitting down, "I hope."

 **"...I don't wanna"** , replied a mechanical, yet human voice from behind the door.

"Why not?"

 **"...The teacher's mean."**

"Que?"

 **"The teacher's mean. She didn't include me as a student."**

"That just- that just sounds stupid."

 **"I'm not coming in until she apologizes."**

Andre and the taller student then looked at , who then sighed, and said, "Fine, I'm", she then tweezed the bridge of their nose, making a noise that sounded between a sigh and a grunt, before continuing, "I'm sorry."

As soon as the last syllable left the teacher's lips, the door quickly slid open, and a large metal black ball quickly drove in. It then quickly jumped up, and slammed into one of the tables where a student was sitting. As the student fell of her recliner chair, the large ball started jumping from table to table, before stopping on Yuuko's table, glaring down on the confused and slightly fearful girl.

"Mateuz", said the tall student, with a stern face, "Stop that."

The ball then started to shift form, separating and reassembling into a new shape. A shape that towered over Yuuko.

The ball had reassembled itself into a new humanoid shape. Thin, metal, and skeletal arms and legs connected to a smooth, grey body. On each hand, there were 4 metal claw like fingers, and a smooth metal thumb, and on each shoulder, there was what looked like a turret. It's head was rectangular, connected to its body by a thin neck, and on each side was a short fin that extended just above its head. At the front of its head was a single eye, that shone a bright green, and on several parts of its body, green lights shone bright.

The metal figure then turned around, looked at the tall student, and slumped its shoulders, **"What John, I'm not allowed to have a little fun?"**

"Not if it's scaring other people", said John with a look that could kill a wild boar, "Unless they, y'know, unless they deserve it. In which case, go nuts."

 **"Christ, you's be a buzzkill, my boy"** , said Mateuz as he skipped off of the table, and quickly jogged up to the group at the podium. There was not a word from the other students in the classroom. They were all trying to process what they had just seen. Despite the growing prevalence of machines and robots across the entire world, thanks to the growing market for them, as well as the many inventors that worked as independent robotics developers or worked for the likes of Chimera Industries or ONI Enterprises, robots themselves were still an uncommon sight, and not only had one joined them in Fumizuki, but from what it seemed, it was about to join them as a student of all things! How was that even possible?

"Well, um", continued John as he looked at the other students, whom had now started muttering amongst themselves, "All that aside, I guess... Well, I suppose that introductions are in order. I'm, um, I'm Se- John. John Prometheus."

"I'm Jack Prometheus", said the blind student. Who was also facing the wrong way. John quickly turned him around.

"Hola", chirped Andre, "I am Andre Prometheus."

 **"And I am Mateuz"** , said the robot, **"Pleased to meet your acquaintance. And tables. Pleased to meet them too."**

"Now", began Ms. Takahashi, "I know things might be a bit different from now on-"

 **"What's that supposed to mean?"**

"-But please try your best to get them acquainted. And I hope you make their time here the best ever."

* * *

"So, what do you actually do here, May I ask?" Asked John, as he looked around the room. He and Jack were sitting down with four people, who he assumed were the main circle of the class, Andre was being chased around the room by several female students, and Mateuz was juggling a saw, some gay manga that he found, a taser that he got of one of the girls in the main circle, and what looked like a model skull from some arts display in the corner. A loud buzzing could be heard outside, but it only lasted for a moment.

"We study", said a brunette girl that was sitting with them.

"For what? Exams or something?"

"Yes, but also to show that we are at the top of the food chain. That we are superior to all of the germs and the underachievers beneath us. If you're in this class, you are among the best and the most deserving, and that won't change one iota. Studying hard for everything, every second of the day shows that we are better than all of them, and they will always be failures, while we will always be the victors. As how it should be with the world."

John quickly shot the other 3- A green haired girl, a greyish purple haired girl, and a dark blue haired boy- An 'Are you serious' look, then looked back to the brunette. He could practically smell the ego that was coming off of this one.

"Trust me, it's blooming brilliant", from how the passing boy with brown spiky hair and bright blue eyes said it, it really wasn't.

"What I believe my brother means", said Jack, who was in a meditative position, "Is what do you do for fun? Is there anything here that could be considered entertainment?"

"Well, we do study, for about 10% of what Yuuko said", started the green haired girl, "And also for the ESB system."

"Huh, I only read a little about that whole ESB thing, so we still kinda in the dark about it", said John, who scratched the back of his head, "Teachers didn't really tell us anything about it either, so, yeah. That's a thing."

"We'll explain it later, but other than study, we chat, we drink tea, we have a few lessons-"

"A few? Doesn't seem to practical to have a few lessons. What if you end up going stupid from not enough stimuli okay your Yuuko friend is giving me the evil eye and I think I can guess why."

"Ignore her, but yeah, we have a few lessons, we read a bit, we relax, and... yeah that's about it."

"Seriously? Seems a wee bit Boring if you ask me. Someone like me needs something that can challenge me and my brothers, not sitting around doing bugger all."

"Um, well-"

"What about all this fancy junk that you got lying around in this place?" asked John as he indicated to all of the equipment in the room, "Recliner chairs, bar, personal fridges and desks, flat screen teles for boards. Surely you must have worked hard, and done something hard and challenging to get them? Like fight in a gladiator pit, or win a contest or something? Contest actually sounds much more feasible, though probably less fun. I mean, this isn't Beast Wars Uprising for goodness sake", Yuuko's group looked at him with a straight face, "Really? None of you? No one has an appreciation of the obscure stuff, I tell you."

"I know it", Yuuko muttered.

"We, um, didn't win them", said the blue haired boy.

"Hm?"

"All the stuff in Class A. We didn't exactly win it."

"...Really?"

"We were rewarded by them", said Yuuko, her pride obviously a mite bit bigger than her brain, "For our higher intelligence. Since we are the best in the school, we obviously must have-"

"What Yuuko is trying to say", interrupted the blue haired boy in a soft spoken manner, "Is that since we are in class A, we have been rewarded by the teachers, and given all of this equipment."

"And you didn't even work for it? At all?"

The blue haired boy looked at him, "Well, we had to practice a lot for the exams, as well as the placement tests themselves, which dictated where our class rankings would lie, and we have to continuously study for exams in order to stay in this class, so we're always busy with that. Then again, we do make a habit of flaking off and doing whatever we wish, so I can't really hold us up to that either, I'm afraid."

"I feel like I must be the one to ask", said Jack, who had broken out of his meditative stance, "But what are the learning conditions for the ones who don't make it in class A?"

Yuuko looked like she was going to open her mouth to go on another rant, but John quickly put his finger on her lips.

"Right then, sorry to be rude (I'm not actually, you're quite annoying), but from how you're selling it, the more I hear of this school's system, the less I like it", said John as he stood up, muttering, "I came here to get away from things like that, So, it's time I had my own perspective on things", he then pulled Jack up to his feet, then motioned to Andre and Mateuz, "Oi, you 2, who wants to go on a field trip?"


	3. The first day: The unknowing

"Thanks for showing us around, um, Riley, was it?" asked John as Mateuz, Riley, Amy, and Jack and he walked out of the exit of Class A, and began to walk down the corridor. Andre quickly followed behind them, having lost the rather tenacious female admirers after him, and grumbling in Spanish very exotic sounding swear words. A loud buzzing could be heard outside, though it was only for a short time.

"Yep, that's my name", went Riley, his blue eyes and brown spiky hair shining in the light of the corridor, looking greasy, and like he hadn't had a shower in a long period of time, "And don't worry about it. We wouldn't want our new peers lost in the school, running around like those chickens now, would we?"

"Um, no, I guess", hesitantly replied John.

 **"You know"** , began Mateuz, **"I could have just accessed the school system and pulled up a map. Every school has a central network, so I could have just gone all JARVIS on it and-"**

"Now now, Mateuz", cut in Andre, who was panting for breath, swearing in Spanish, before going, "Riley and his friend-"

"Older Sister", said Amy, her short, messy brownish hair, and Blueish grey eyes eyeing Andre, then looking back to the front of her.

"Riley and his sister, sorry", Andre looked at Amy with a look of annoyance on him at being interrupted, "Have taken time out of their busy day to show us around, and it would be rude to turn them down now, wouldn't it?"

"Actually", began Amy, "Us guys and gals in Class A don't really have much to do, other than study, like our high queen Yuuko orders us to do on a daily goddamn basis, which tends to get really old after a bit, or we could just lounge around and wait for something interesting to happen, like a teacher walking in, or Class F starting an ESB war on us or something."

"If you would like to fill us in on this so called 'ESB war', it would be much appreciated. Please", politely said Jack, his walking stick occasionally hitting the back of one of Amy and Riley's feet.

"Well, ESB means Exam Summoning Battle", began Riley, "And it's what we're always studying for. Whenever a Class wants new equipment or a new facility, they declare a war on a higher class. If a higher class declares war on a lower class, then it's usually for personal reasons, since there's usually nothing to benefit from it. If the lower class wins, they can either trade equipment with the loser, trade facilities, or do nothing. If the lower class loses, then they get worse equipment then they did before."

"Well, if you fight in a war, what do you use as weapons?" asked John with a face of curiosity.

 **"Oh, can we use real guns"** , asked Mateuz with a hint of excitement, **"Maybe we can get a bunch of classes to kill each over, and we can re-enact the beach scene in Saving Private Ryan, or the War in Donbass."**

"I heard about all of that", replied Amy, "That war is still going on today. 'The unknown conflict of the last 4 years. Once between the Ukraine and Russian backed Separatists, now it's NATO backed Romanian and Ukraine loyalists versus the Russians and Crimea Separatists, and a Russian private military firm, Voinskaya brigada.' Channel 9 news' words, not mine, though 'Unknown' is pretty inaccurate. Lots of people talking about it these days. Lotta people speculating that it could be a build-up to another cold war between Russia and the US."

"We once went to Russia", said Jack, "There was already political infighting between the loyalists and a bunch of guys affiliated with the Burners."

"Huh, sounds like you lot have had a pretty exciting life", quipped Riley.

"It's best if you don't ask", sombrely said John, "It'll save you the trouble."

"Oh, er, alright", replied Riley, though he didn't press the matter any further, "Anyway, back to what you were asking, what we use to fight are our Summoned Beings, which are basically tiny midgets that we control with our minds. If a teacher approves of a battle in a certain subject, then we can summon our avatars, who's health depends on the score of your last test. I'm not too sure on how it works, but from what I have gathered, all you need to do is think of a command, and your avatar will follow it, so it's kinda psychic as well as scientific, I think."

 **"So, do we get to use real guns?"**

"No Mateuz, we don't", replied Andre, "At least, I assume not."

 **"Aw, that's a damn shame... What about homemade robots?"**

"What?" asked Amy with a raised eyebrow.

 **"Me and the guys- I mean, my three 'creators'- built a bunch of robots. And me. At home. Homemade robots. And me as well. Like in every short film on YouTube ever. Can we use them?"**

"Err, I would assume no..."

"As would I", replied John, "Hey Riley, me, Yuuko, and a few of her lot had a talk about the system of this school before heading out, and she and her friends said that the only reason that they got all of the fancy crap in Class A was that they were smarter than the others in the school. And with you talking about higher and lower classes, well, I'm just curious as to what is actually going on here."

"Oh, well, at the beginning of the year, or for transfer students and newcomers, there is a placement test that you have to take, with no limit to the amount of questions, but there is a time limit."

"Like the same one we took", said Andre.

"I couldn't take it because", Jack started, gesturing to his eyes, "Well, I could, but you know, the whole blind thing. Apparently the only reason I'm in Class A is because John said he was my carer."

"Well, you're lucky. If he hadn't had said that, you would be automatically sent to Class F", continued Riley, "The class you are assigned to depends on your intelligence. If you get a high score on your test, you are sent to the 3 higher classes. If you score low, flake out in the middle of the test, just can't take the test at all, or whatever other reason, you are automatically sent to 3 lower classes. For flake out or inability, you're just sent to Class F and treated as a failure, regardless of how intelligent you actually are."

"Isn't that a wee bit unfair?" asked John, "I mean, it would be reasonable to allow them to take the test again."

"Only on rare occasions does the great and powerful principal, our lord and saviour, allow that", said Riley with an annoyed tone in his voice, "Other than those rare times, once you're in a shite classroom, you're basically fucked for life. The lower the grade, the worse the classroom. they essentially unfairly punish and degrade their students just because they don't have the smartitudes."

"But that's bollocks", exclaimed John, "You shouldn't punish students just because of how smart they are, or how much they score on a piece of paper. You should be helping them to improve, and focus your attention on helping them become the best they can be, not kicking them into the dirt."

"Yeah, it's a pretty shit rule", said Amy, "But it's not like we have a choice in the matter. Actually, at the beginning of the year, some students in Class A held a nonviolent protest against the system, and refused to take any tests until changes were made."

"What happened to them?" asked Andre.

"...Me and Riley were evicted from our homes, and we now live in a rundown flat in down town. I almost lost my job at a nightclub- not as a stripper, mind you- and Riley was, and still is being bullied by a group of fellow A class peers under the employ of Yuuko."

 **"...Oh my god."**

"In that case, lets go beat the shit out of those guys, compadres", said Andre.

 **"Yeah, it'll be like the church scene** **from Kingsman."**

"Trust me when I say this, we were the lucky ones", said Riley with a somber voice, "The others in the protest were expelled from the school, but not before they were severely beaten by those who supported the school system. Pretty sure they were sicked on by Miss Yuuko herself and the Principal. One of them even committed suicide, and the school just", there was a sigh from Riley, before he continued, "The school wrote it off, and pretended that it never happened. The families of the others lost their jobs, and had to move out of the city, all thanks to Yuuko and her supporters."

"Jesus Christ", said Jack, "I could tell that the girl had an ego, but I never suspected she would go that far."

"Yeah, well, I'm sure she's secretly a tsundere with a heart of gold", commented Riley, before going, "From what I've heard, Class A used to be so much more tolerable before Yuuko and her cabal of cronies showed up and turned it into her own little autocracy. I mean, pretty sure it wasn't likeable before, but it's apparently less so now. The worse part is that most of the teachers turned a blind eye to it all. I'm sure Mr Nishimura did everything that he could, "He had a look on his face that said that he didn't believe it himself, "But even he couldn't stop them. Not only that, but the local government is notoriously corrupt, so the school can pretty much get away with anything, and not have to worry about the repercussions. It's absolute bullshit, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"Oh contraire", said John, "There's a lot a single group of people can do."

* * *

Walking down the opposite end of the corridor, carrying several- And by several, I mean a lot- Pictures of a certain maroon girl, Miharu Shimizu was fumbling her keychain for the key to her personal room in the lower levels of the school. For the entire day, she has been feeling a strange sensation inside her. A sensation she had not felt in a long time. A feeling of contentment and unknown completion, yet also a feeling of anger and confusion. Probably not whatever the commotion outside of the school was, but still, the feeling just wouldn't leave her.

Miharu continued to fumble her keychain, continuously failing to find the key. Her private room was a old storage room that she found in the lower levels of the new building, which she had converted into her home away from home. In her free time, when she wasn't at her honey's side, she would retreat to this room and monitor her love through several hidden cameras that she had placed in the school, as well as several paid informants that she had monitoring Class F.

Miharu knew that her honey would protest to it. She protested a lot of stuff that Miharu did, but in the end, she would see that it was for the best. Miharu couldn't have any filthy man contaminate her honey with their, er, filth. Especially that disgusting moron that she socialises with. Eventually, Miharu and her love would be joined together in union for the rest of their lives, and she would be damned if anything got in her way.

Miharu looked up from her keychain to see a small group coming down the corridor. She recognised the 2 at the front as the siblings from Class A, (she had to directly fight the two when Class D went to war against Class A once) but the others she... could recognise?

One was a spindly nonhuman, yet humanoid robot with a singular glowing green eye. Extremely strange to see a machine in a school, even with the growing usage and commonality of robotics across the world nowadays. Another was a boy with green hair and eyes, a gloved hand, a Spanish tattoo on his right cheek, and the smoothest of skin. Another was a chocolate skinned boy, wearing a hoodie with a red skull at the front, messy clothes, sunglasses, and carried around a walking stick...

...And the last was a tall boy with the roughest of skin, and the feel of a wild animal. His eyes were mismatched, his left being red, and his right being green. His hair clumsily covered his left eye, and his face wore the grimace of a true warrior.

Suddenly, the boy and Miharu made eye contact, both of them widening their eyes, and wearing a face of shock and disbelief, though they kept it to themselves, and made not a sound. The other 3 quickly took notice, and the robot and the green haired boy also reacted with quiet surprise. Even the blind boy could sense the presence of Miharu, and seemed surprised, though none of them let the 2 siblings before them know it.

The tall boy quickly broke eye contact, and the others took note and continued walking, leaving Miharu in disbelief.

"¿Era realmente ella, John?" silently asked the green haired boy.

"Keep walking, Andre", muttered the tall boy, "We'll talk about this later."

Miharu continued to stand in shock, and dropped both her keychain, and the photos of Minami. The feelings that she was having. She understood it now. Now, she was feeling new emotions.

Sadness.

Love.

Hate.

Hope.

Completion.

 **Rage**.

Because they had come back into her life...

Because after so long, after 6 and a half years, now, did they choose to return to her.

Kyle the bubbly, yet lethal death machine...

Diego the Spanish hunter...

Samuel the blind, yet wise samurai...

And Sebastian. Sebastian the liberator... Sebastian the warrior... Sebastian the killer...

"Sebastian", muttered Miharu, "My love... My rock... My saviour... My betrayer... My heart's killer..."

* * *

"And this is Class F", said Riley, as the small group stood at the entrance of the poor excuse of a classroom. Noting the broken sign that indicated the classroom, Mateuz poked the sign, but it ended up falling off, and hitting the ground, to which Mateuz quickly picked it up and hid it behind his back. Part of the Wall ended up coming off and hitting Andre on the top of the head, thanks to some rumbling, and another loud buzzing sound.

 **"This... This is Class F?"** asked Mateuz, **"I mean, I know you said that lower the class, the lower the quality, but this seems a bit... Well, I suppose Pathetic is the right word."**

"It smells like something died in there", said Andre as he wiped flakes of wall off of his face with his gloved hand, and then rubbed the top of his head, "Like a rat, or their collective pride, humility, and dignity. Also, a piece of wall hit me in the face."

 **"That sounds like it hurt."**

"Eh, just a bit."

"Yeah, Class F is essentially the bottom of the barrel", said Amy, "Yet it's somehow- Don't ask me how- The main hive of activity. A lot of events in the school have happened because of 6 particular individuals in this class. Warring against another class on the first day of the school year, leading a raid on the girls' bathroom, waging war against every class in the space of a few day, winning a test of courage, launching fireworks into the school like bazookas and somehow pissing off everybody in the entire school. Whenever something big is happening in the school, they're usually at the centre of it."

"Someone should call child protective services."

"Oh no, I'm sure that's not necessary", quipped Riley, "I'm sure there all just rough pieces of... Metal or whatever that need to be iron out before they can become productive little bees serving the hive and their queen... Okay, that was a terrible analogy, I will admit."

 **"Seems like they have quite the reputation"** , replied Mateuz.

"Like I said, they've somehow managed to piss off the entire school body", went Amy, "Everyone hates them, me thinks. Ironman does all that he can for them, but many people believe that they are a lost cause. I like to think of them as geniuses in extremely convincing idiot's clothing."

"Someone should really call child protective services."

While they were talking, Jack muttered to John, "Brother. John. Your aura is tense. Strained. Are you okay?"

"Oh, what?" said John, who was broken out of his daze, and looked at Jack, "Oh, um, I'm okay."

"I sensed her. Her presence. And you saw her. If you need to talk about it-"

"I don't need to talk about it, Jack, because we had that talk 6 and a half years ago. I don't regret what I did because it was the right thing to do."

"Yes you do."

"What?"

"Regret it. You do regret it."

"...Yeah, alright then, of course I do. But it was still the right thing to do."

"Natalia would say otherwise."

"She got her revenge for what they did to her, and now she's all grown up, so I'm sure she'll understand."

"Yet I sense that you will try to avoid her, despite you once, and still, loving her.

"That's not the-"

"Yes it is, and you know it."

"...You know why I'm gonna avoid her, and I know you're gonna disagree with me."

"It's a stupid reason."

"It's the right reason."

"It's not gonna help make amends."

"There are no amends to be made. Despite what I feel, it was for her own good, and it still is, so lets just leave it at that."

"You can't run from our past forever, Sebastian."

"Watch me."

"Well then", said Riley as he began to walk back to Class A, "Lets show you guys where the bathrooms are. They can be pretty hard to find in this place-"

{SMASH}

The small group looked to the origin of the loud noise, which seemed to come from behind the door of Class F. The Prometheans flinched, a green glow shining from the chests of the 3 human Prometheans for just a split second, barely noticeable to the naked eye, their hands seemingly reaching for things that weren't there, but composed themselves once they saw no immediate danger, Jack easing on his walking stick, and Mateuz's shoulder cylinders stopped humming.

After a brief moment's hesitation, Andre was the one to break the uncomfortable ice, "Er, what was that?"

"Oh they must be up to their usual antics", replied Riley, "Let me tell you, they are quite a lively bunch of individuals."

"I think calling them 'individuals' is stretching it", commented Amy, "More like sociopaths with more character defects than actual personalities."

 **"Seems a tad bit harsh, Miss Regina George"** , said Mateuz.

"No, really, this guys are genuine psychos."

 **"You said sociopaths, not psychopaths."**

"What's the difference?"

 **"Well, actually-"**

{SMASH}

"We should at least check and make sure that everything's hunky-dory in there", said John, finally pulling himself away from his conversation with Jack.

" _Sigh_... Yes, that would be... Wise", said Jack in hesitant agreement.

John then stepped up, opened the door to the class room, walked in, then was immediately confronted with the madhouse that was Class F.

Now, the omnipotent God that is the narrator would like the reader to imagine a barnyard, filled with broken dreams, misplaced heroism, and psychopathy, and then fill it up with about a hundred animals infected with rabies (Preferable about 50 purple hyenas, an red head alpha lion, a blue haired bat, a gazelle, an innocent little bunny rabbit, a marron coloured (Colour, or color?) Fox trying to break the rabbit's back in twain, and a pink golden retriever puppy dog with the teeth of a bulldog, and a few common dogs scattered around everywhere, sleeping). That would pretty much describe this classroom and its occupants. John immediately eyed a boobless maroon haired girl doing the Boston crab submission move on some kid who's face he couldn't see, but who seemed rather familiar, the back of what looked like a pink haired girl with a dark battle aura around her, a guy that suspiciously looked like Yuuko, but somehow uglier (Hard to tell that he is a bloke at first, but it becomes eventually obvious) Reading what looked like a script for a play, a blue haired boy taking pictures of the maroon girls panties (Sex offender in training, most likely), A tall, red haired boy just leaning a wall with an uninterested look on his face (Really dude, really?) And what looked like a cult was amassing in the back ( _Note to self_ , thought John, _Deal with them later_ ).

At first, no body noticed the tall boy standing in the doorway, as they had all been absorbed into their own antics, which were both amusing and weird and also kinda dangerous at the same time. but slowly, they took interest in him and the small group outside the door. The strange cult group took notice first, murmuring amongst themselves as to who the boy was, having heard the rumours that Class A had gotten new students, and concluded that this was one of them, and was exploring. Most of the small groups noticed Mateuz in the doorway, and were in awe at the robot, as they hadn't ever seen one before. One group noticed Andre, and felt threatened that there was now more competition in securing a girlfriend than before (Not that anyone wanted to go out with them anyway). But what tied most of the groups together, was the overall strangeness of the small collection of individuals at the door of their raggedy classroom.

Eventually, three of the people in the last group noticed them. The tall boy with red hair got up from leaning on the wall, and eyed the tall boy, making John feel a tad but uncomfortable. The Yuuko knockoff looked up from his reading material to see what everyone was looking at, and like most of the class, noticed the strange group of individuals, most notably the robot. Even the blue haired boy stopped taking pictures to look at the group with suspicion.

"Um, is... Is it the mismatching eyes?" asked John nervously, "It's usually the mismatching eyes."

"Not really", commented Andre, "It's actually the 6 foot walking death machine that catches attention."

 **"Oi, John's not that bad"** , said Mateuz.

"I was talking about you."

 **"Oh... Oh."**

"Who are you?" asked the red haired boy.

"Ok, straight to the point. I'm John. John Prometheus. Nice to meet you."

"What kind of a name is that?" asked one random Class F member.

"What kind of name is... er, what's your name?"

"Yuuichirou Nishimura."

"What kind of a name is... Wait", said John as he turned to Riley, "Didn't you say that there was a guy here called Nishimura?"

"Um, yeah", said Riley, "I heard that he has a nephew here, though I never bothered to confirm-"

"What! You're related to Iron Man?!" called out another Class F student, "Why didn't you say anything!"

"Ok, interrupt me, be an asshole. That's fine. That's fine by me."

"I DID!" called out Yuuichirou, "But no one ever listened. I'm pretty sure that no one here even knows that I existed up until now!"

"Who are you again?" asked the Yuuko ripoff,

"Exactly! No one ever bothered to talk to me, and every time I tried to talk to someone, they ignored me! One time I tried to talk to Sakamoto about a plan that he had to beat Class B when we went to war with them, because I didn't agree with my position in it, and he completely shut me down, and went back to talking to the other 5 in his inner circle!"

"Hey", shouted another Class F student, "Yuuichi… Whatever his stupid long name is, is right!"

"Hey, my name's not that bad... Is it?"

"Every time Sakamoto comes up with a plan, he only ever discusses it with those 2 jerks and the only girls in this class! He never considers our opinions!"

While the rest of Class F were beginning to get riled up, John looked back at the red haired boy, who beckoned them to come closer. With hesitation, the small group of 6 entered the room, with Riley and Amy heading to the large rally of Class F students, and the Prometheans heading towards the small group of six.

"Ignore the others", said the red haired boy, "I'm Yuuji Sakamoto by the way. Class F representative.

"Oh, supongo que este es el momento para nuestras presentaciones", muttered Andre to Jack, who nodded in agreement. He then turned to Yuuji, "I'm Andre Prometheus. Born in Spain, living in Japan."

"Huh, that explains the Spanish", said the Yuuko knockoff, "I'm Hideyoshi Kinoshita. Pleased to meet you."

"Charming", said Andre, who had a rather repulsed look on his face, though he tried to hide it.

"I'm Jack Prometheus", said Jack as he politely bowed, "At your service."

"Oh, um..." muttered Yuuji, "I'm not use to that."

"Oh, what?" queried Jack, "Whatever it is, I do apologise. I merely wish to make a positive introduction."

"Politeness", answered Yuuji, "I'm not use to politeness."

"Yeah", said Hideyoshi, "Our fellow classmates are rather... what's the word?"

"Rowdy?" asked Andre, "Because they do seem like a rather rowdy bunch of individuals."

"Un", grunted the blue haired boy.

"...Yes. Un."

The small group then looked over to the large rally of Class F students, who had elected Yuuichirou as their leader, while Riley and Amy were trying to calm them down.

"I heard that Class B has a council of sorts!" called out one student, "Where they all take a vote on what to do!"

"Then that is what we shall do!" cried Yuuichirou, "We shall build a council, where all can have their say, and no one will be forgotten!"

"Oh, sure", began Riley, "Because that's worked out so well before-"

"SHUT UP!" called out all the members of the rally, producing various weapons somehow, and pointing them at both Riley and Amy, who had immediately gotten the message to back off.

"Maybe we should calm them down", said Hideyoshi.

"Let them get it all out of their system", replied Yuuji, "They'll run out of steam in a bit."

"Isn't that a tad bit neglectful?" asked Andre.

"I agree", commented Jack, "These kind of things have a tendency to boil over if neglected."

"Ah, it'll be fine", replied Yuuji, "Not too long ago, we had to deal with more intense stuff than this. This is nothing we can't handle."

"I think I'll hold you to that, my friend", replied Andre.

While Andre and Yuuji were talking, John and Mateuz approached the maroon haired girl, who still had the boy in a Boston Crab Submission, and the pink long haired girl with the scary aura.

"I see that you are using the Boston Crab Submission on this poor chap", said John, obviously directed to the maroon haired girl, "Although it does look like he has passed out. And several parts of his body broken."

The maroon haired girl then looked up at John, as well as the pink haired girl.

"Well", started the maroon haired girl, "I guess that I may have overdo-"

Both of the girls then immediately saw Mateuz, and they jumped back in surprise.

""EEP!"" squealed both of the girls, ""A ROBOT!""

 **"EPP! AN ASIAN AND A WHITE LADY!... See, not so nice now, is it?"** stated Mateuz.

"Mateuz!" coldly said John, "First impressions. Please."

 **"Oh, I'm sorry if I feel a tad bit offended at someone who is visible taken back by my appearance. I mean, come on. It's 2022. Haven't we as a society become more secular to these kind of things?"**

"That's not the right word to use. Secular means non-religious. You're thinking about openness."

 **"... You get what I mean."**

John then looked at the two girls, "I'm sorry about that little display there. He's clinically stupid. I understand that you might be a bit taken back by this."

"Y-yeah. A bit..." nervously said the pink haired girl.

 **"More like a lot, 'cause if that happened to me, I would HOLY SHITZU YOUR TANTAUNS ARE BIG, PINK HAIRED GIRL!"**

"And there goes first impressions", sighed John, as he looked away from the robot, while preforming a facewall, because the facepalm wasn't enough to express his shame.

"Um, t-thank you-"

 **"Like, really big. Like your hair. How can you walk with all of that hair? And hunga mungas? Looks like they weighs 300 pounds each. And why does your hair look like it's made of bubble gum."**

John then turned his attention to the maroon haired girl, "I am so sorry for him on his behalf. I'd say he's not always like this, but..."

"I-isn't that thing your robot or something", questioned the maroon haired girl with a expression that spoke of concern for her friend, "Can't you just do some techy thingymajig with it to make it, I dunno, less like Voyeur!"

"Um, well, I dunno who or what this 'Voyeur' thing is (I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it's the blue haired boy with the camera over there), But believe me, I have tried to reprogram him, but the problem is that if you try to do so, there's a good chance that he'll lose his memory and entire personality in the process. He can upload himself into new shells, but he can't be reprogrammed, lest he lose everything that he is, and turn into a metal baby with the intelligence of an infant, so until I can find a way around that, we're all stuck with the perverted triggerhappy death machine."

"Oh, so you don't want to reprogram it because it might not be the same, afterwards."

"He, not it, but yes, that is my logic. After a while though, he does grow on you. He has a much better side to him, trust me. You just need to get to know him better."

"Is that the same with all of you?"

"...Not necessarily. The others, sure. Me, I'm an open book."

"I don't believe you."

"No one ever does", John rolled his mismatched eyes, "Right, sure. I've got secrets. Secrets no one else has authorisation for. There. Happy?"

The two stared at each other for a few more seconds.

"I'm Minami Shimada, by the way", said the maroon haired girl.

"John Prometheus. But I guess you already knew that. When I said it when I came in."

"Oh, I didn't here that. I was kinda busy."

"Yes, I could tell", slowly said John as he looked at the boy on the floor, who was still knocked out, "What might his story be, may I ask?" he asked as he gently nudged the boy's head with his foot.

"I guess he thought it would be funny to comment on me and Mizuki's chest sizes", said Minami in a clearly angry way, "Like your robot. Or maybe not. He's an idiot, so it's impossible to tell either way. Aki, I mean. Not your robot. Maybe."

"So he's a pervert?"

"Aren't all men?"

John shrugged, "Not really. I'm looking at you, and I'm not particularly enamoured by your body."

"Was that an insult?"

"It was not my intention."

Minami sighed, and then went, "So yeah, he remarked that my chest was smaller than Himeji's, like the idiot always does?"

"And your response to that remark was to place him in a hold that could break his spine?" John questioned.

"Yep."

"...Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"I guess, but it's partly his fault-"

"How? For making a harmless comment?", John paused, "Wait, was it intentionally insulting?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Well, that's just makes it more extreme than necessary. It would be a bit more deserving if he intentionally made that comment to hurt, but it would still be extreme. A good slap to the face would've sufficed, I suppose."

"Um, excuse me? We don't even know each other, so what right do you have to come into our classroom and pass judgement?"

"I'm just saying."

"You are not 'just saying'."

"I'm just saying. Jesus... No need to act like a bitch."

"What?"

"You heard what I said."

"Well there's no need to act like an asshole."

"Oh, I'm like this to all new people I meet. Blunt and literal."

"I can tell."

"Can you? Can you really?"

"Yeah. I seen all sort of people like you."

John looked at Minami with dark eyes, "Trust me sweetheart, there is no one like me."

"There's always someone like you", she retorted.

"...humph, well I can tell that we are going to get along swimmingly."

"No, we won't."

"That was sarcasm. I was being sarcastic."

"...I hate you."

"Bit early to be jumping on the hate train."

"Well, I've already made up my mind about you."

"Same."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Urrr...", moaned the boy on the ground, as he started to stir.

"Looks like someone's waking up", said Minami.

"Shouldn't you take him to a nurse or something? Does this school even have a nurse?", he rubbed the back of his head, muttering, "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't. This school seems like a home for unlawful acts and whatnot."

"It does, but just leave him. He's had worse."

"I really doubt that."

"He has, trust me."

"I really don't", commented John, as he picked up the boy, and threw him over his shoulder, "Welp, if you aren't gonna take this chap to the nurse, then I will."

"Do you even know where it is?" queried Minami.

"Nope, but I'll find it. I'll just ask around. Somebody's gotta know where it is. Besides, they'll see how urgent it is when they see that one of their peers is unconscious."

"Sure, they will", sarcastically commented Minami.

John then looked over to Andre and Jack, who were talking to Yuuji and Hideyoshi, "Yo, Andre, Jack. I'm gonna take this poor chap to the nurse (If I can find them), So when you're done here, go explore a bit more, then meet me back at Class A. We still need to discuss how we're gonna survive in this place.

"Right John", replied Jack.

"Si", said Andre.

"Oh, and keep Mateuz in line. He's being... Well..."

"Himself?" asked Andre.

"A total nincompoop, so yeah", said John as he motioned to Mateuz, who was still gawking at the pink haired girl's boobs, "So see you whenever."

"See ya", John heard Andre call as he walked out the room. He just had to find the nurses office (if they even had one, mind you), and get his peer some assistance. He also had to find a way to avoid You-Know-Who, as to avoid any inconveniences in his latest mission, Operation: Find a Nurse or at least someone who knows basic first aid was ago.

Suddenly, John saw something in the back of his eye. He quickly stopped and looked at the hand of the student he was carrying. For a second, he swore that it was glowing. Hardly seen to the naked eye, but it was there. He pondered it for a second, then filed it away for later. His eyes were probably playing tricks on him again.

* * *

Unbeknownst to John, a pair of eyes was following him, taking in all his details. A pair of yellowish topaz eyes, belonging to a girl with pumpkin orange hair, and twiglet ponytails. A girl who has gone through hell and back, born into hate, saved through blood, banished through guilt, and reborn through regret.

"Sebastian...", muttered Miharu, as a sad sigh she breathed. A sigh, filled with regret, anger, guilt, betrayal, and sadness...

* * *

 **You can tell when an author is getting desperate when he is actually asking people to review his work, but if you could please leave a review and some constructive criticism, it would be much appreciated. I feel slightly depressed when I see people reading my work, and not leave a single review. Please, show a fellow author some love, and at least comment on this. Even if it's one word. Please?**

 **Titanmaster117 out!**


	4. The first day:Walk amongst the chosen

The first thing that Akihisa noticed when he woke up, was that he was laying on something comfy. Which was weird, considering the fact that Class F's floor felt like dead carpet and splintered wood (can carpet die? Maybe. Maybe not. One of the many mysteries of the world, along with how to recover from video game addiction and what to do when you have a sudden compulsion to do something violent). So if the floor was comfy, then he wasn't in Class F, unless they were refurbishing the place, and they hadn't bothered to move him, which was kinda a jerky thing to do. What had he done to the refurbishing people. Then again, he and his friends had pissed off a lot of people in the last 6 to 7 months, and it wasn't even halfway through the school year, so they had that going for them.

Akihisa gently opened his eyes, to see that he was in the school infirmary. Again. It was only Monday, so plenty of chances to return. At this point, he had been in this room so many times, that he could remember right of the top of his head every single detail of it; a rather large room, painted in creamy beige, with 2 windows showing the outside world, and on the window closest to him, there was a flower pot, with a Sakura flower in it, though it had long since died, due to neglect, and was limp and rotten. There were at least 4 white beds along the wall where the windows were (He appeared to be laying in one of them, just under the window with the dead flower), each one with it's own curtain to be extended around the whole bed, but they weren't in use, so they had been pulled back, including his, and there were 3 more beds along the opposite wall, but they had signs over them that said 'reserved for Class A members', which sucks, because they looked the most luxurious, having comfier quilts and pillows, and softer mattresses than the regular ones (Akihisa should know. He laid in one of them once. Granted he was immediately kicked out of the infirmary for that, but still). Near the entrance to the room was a cabinet filled with medicine, plasters, and other first aid essentials, and next to the cabinet was a sink, with tissues and plastic gloves accessible, as well as plastic cups and soap.

Akihisa then moved to sit up, but found that his back was hurting slightly. Strange, his body would usually quickly heal after an injury, even if they seemed life threatening. He had figured that he was just able to heal faster than most other people- Like his aunt and everyone else with the whole glowy heart thing- Which at this point, made simple threats like a punch to the face laughable. Akihisa had gotten so used to the pain, that he could now stomach anything that anyone could through at him with relative ease. But this. His back hurting. Even if it was only slightly, it was at the very least worrying. Maybe after all this time, his injuries were finally catching up with him. It didn't really seem possible, but neither did anything that's happened over the last half a year, so he really wasn't sure if he was supposed to be surprised at anything anymore.

"Hey, don't strain yourself", said an unknown, yet familiar voice, "You just suffered a Boston crab submission from a lady with seemingly the patience or temper of a bull when it sees red, so I'd advice you to lay down till you're all sorted."

Akihisa then looked to his left, and saw a tall, brown haired boy sitting on a chair next to the bed, with a magazine in one hand, and his other resting on the chair arm. His hair was messy, and barely covered his left eye, and his skin was rough and had a slight tan to it. He had a definite build to him, as the outlines of muscles could be seen through his jumper, and he had the face that said 'I'm-awesome-but-I've-also-seen-a-lot-of-shit-in-my-life-that-I don't-wanna-talk-about'. What really caught Akihisa off guard was his eyes. The boy's left eye was a natural grassy green, filled with hope, and enthusiasm, while the other was a blood red, filled with all the dark things in the world, like despair and guilt.

The boy seemed to catch on to this, as he asked in a gruff voice, "The eyes?"

"The eyes", replied Akihisa. He knew he should feel slightly more nervous around this strange boy, but all he felt was a familiarity to him, as if he had seen him before, in some place, that he just couldn't put his finger on. Like his memories were running away from him into the deepest corners of his mind.

"Understandable", said the boy, "Heterochromia can be a bit off putting as first."

"Hetero-what?"

"Mismatched eyes."

"Yeah, I know you have mismatched eyes, but what does the weird word you just said mean?"

The boy looked at Akihisa with a confused face, "Heterochromia means someone has mismatched eyes."

"Oh, so it's Latin."

"I... what? No, it's not Latin. It's like when you call the flu the common cold. It's just a name."

"Oh, okay."

The boy looked at him of a second, "...Right then. That was 30 seconds of my life gone."

"Same here", replied Akihisa.

"Well, yeah, I was just having that talk with you."

"I know, right? Time flies when you're talking to a stranger."

"Well then, let us not be strangers", said the boy, as he extended his hand, "I'm John. John Prometheus."

"Akihisa Yoshii", said Akihisa as he took the hand offered to him, and shook it.

"Oh, like that thing from Mario", said John.

"...Yeah sure", replied Akihisa, "Wait, what kind of a last name is 'Prometheus'?"

"What kind of a last name is a Mario character?"

"Good point", said Akihisa.

John then looked like he was in deep thought, "Akihisa Yoshi, huh... that name sounds so familiar... but where did I hear it from?"

"Maybe you met someone with the same name as me."

"Possibly. These things do happen", John replied, though he didn't seem convinced.

Akihisa then lifted himself up, and climbed out of the bed, wincing from the pain, and grabbing his jumper, which had been left on the side.

"Whoa, hey", went John as Akihisa gently rubbed his back, "What did I just say?"

"I'm fine", replied Akihisa, "Just a little back pain, that's all."

"You're really not", shot back John, "Boston crab submission. Crazy chick. Remember me saying that to you-"

"What did I just say", said Akihisa, "I'm fine, really. And I'd also like it if you didn't call Minami crazy."

"Oh so you know which one that was", muttered John.

"Yep."

"Still seems overzealous to punish you for a comment."

"Hey, sometimes I don't watch what I say. And yes, Minami does sometimes take it a little too far."

"Understatement of the year from what I've seen so far", said John as he got up from his seat, walked over to the cabinet, which was already open, and some of the medical things inside of it had been rocked around, thanks to the counstant rumbling and buzzing coming from outside. John started rummaging through the cabinet, muttering to himself, "(who just leaves this thing unlocked? Jesus, the more I learn about this place, the more I learn that it sucks)."

"What are you doing?" questioned Akihisa.

"If you're gonna go, at least take some painkillers", said John, as he pulled out a small plastic container, took the lid off, and poured 2 pills out, "Here, these should at least solve your back pains till school ends."

John then threw them to Akihisa, who caught them, and swallowed them whole without any water.

"You're... just gonna swallow them like that?" queried John, "Without any water? But those things taste disgusting. Like ashy blocks of coal in your mouth."

"Yep, they do", answered Akihisa, "But I've stomached worse. Trust me, that was nothing."

"I really don't want to believe you, but your face is telling the truth", replied John as he put the lid back on the container, and placed it back in the cabinet, "Though I'm not sure if it's a good omen or a bad one.

"My face?"

"Yeah. You can tell when someone is lying by just-"

"-By just looking at their face, I know", said Akihisa, "I've lived long enough to be able to see through people's poker face."

"Really?"

"Yes, as of a week ago."

"... Seriously?"

"Yep, now I can see through anyone's poker face, as long as it's a terrible one."

"Such as?"

"Well, if they're sweating, twitchy, stuttering words, and looking fearful, then yeah, it's pretty easy."

"Anyone can do that."

"What?"

"What you've just described is the basic lying face when a guy can't successfully tell a lie. Anyone can do that. Anyone can tell that kind of guy is lying."

"So..."

"So you're no different from the herd."

"...Aw, I thought I had unlocked a superpower or something."

"Telling when someone is lying when they have the worst lying face on is not a superpower. That's like pointing out that Kristen Stewart only has one facial expression. It's obvious and unnecessary."

"I guess... still a shame, though."

"I suppose. I mean, I did just crush a moment of happiness for you, it seems, so I suppose I might have overdone it a tad bit."

"No it's fine, really."

"You sure, 'cause I feel like a bit of a dick now."

"Yeah, it's cool."

Akihisa and John then walked out of the infirmary together, and began walking down the hallway together, occasionally passing other students and faculty members, who looked at the odd pairing, and mused over the fact that what seemed like the most visually different people were having a rather friendly conversation.

"So", asked John, "Your back doing good now?"

"Dude, you're like my dad", replied Akihisa, "Always worrying and stuff. My back's fine now, but still."

"Hey mate", said John, "It's kinda hard not to be concerned when your peer is on the floor, unconscious. Plus the nurse decided that she was gonna be a bitch and walk out the second that you were on a bed, so I decided to be the better person and make sure that you were at least okay when you got up."

"Huh, well, that's probably the nicest thing anyone at this school's ever done for me. Also, why were you at Class F anyway? Are you a new student?"

"Oh, yeah, but I'm not in Class F. Me and my brothers are in Class A."

"Class A? So you get all the luxuries?"

"Um, yeah, I guess."

"So why were you at Class F?"

"Oh, Riley and his sister were showing us around (at least, I assume that she's his sister, as he did say so. They do look rather different), and we just happened to stumble across your class, where Riley's sister said that you guys were, to quote, more like sociopaths with more character defects then actual personalities. Or something along those lines."

"Oh, well then..."

"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure she meant it in the nicest way."

"Yeah, sure", sarcastically said Akihisa, "She totally meant it like that."

"Okay, I'm detecting a lot of negative emotion. Is there something that I should be aware of, or..."

"It's just that, People from Class A tend to be self entitled bigots who think that they deserve everything they want just because they're smart."

"Is that so? Well, from what I've seen and heard, you only seem to be focusing on one group in Class A. That Yuuko girl's group, to be more specific."

"Really? If you think they're nothing but a vocal minority, you're mistaken: From what Hideyoshi has told us, and from what we have personal experience with, Yuuko is effectively the De Facto leader of Class A, and she's gotten her ideology in all their heads. Now they treat everyone below them like trash, just because they can. I mean, hell, on the first few days of the first semester, they challenged us to a war just because we had challenged Class E to a war on the first day, and they felt obligated to stamp out the seeds of a viva la revolution before the flowers could even grow.

"You challenged a class on the first day? Cool."

"We lost. To Class A. Not Class E."

"Still, cool."

"I suppose- wait, why am I sharing this information with you? You're from Class A!"

"Um, yeah. I do remember mentioning that."

"So how do I know that you aren't working with Yuuko?"

"Wait, what? Mate, I only just got here!"

"So?"

"So, I still don't know the names of most of the people in my Class, or the people!"

"How do I know that you're not lying to me?"

"Come on mate, do I look like the kinda guy who would betray you for some stupid reason?"

"Yes."

Ouch, low blow, lose a life."

"Well, it had to be said."

They then reached an intersection in the hallway, with one way leading from Class C to A, and the other from Class D to F.

John then looked at Akihisa, "Look, Akihisa, you seem like a good kid, albeit, one with a prejudice, so I'm gonna be real with you: I don't trust Yuuko, or her friends, but I do trust my brothers and Riley, at the moment. Now, I don't know everyone in Class A, but I'm gonna get there, and when I do, if we encounter each other, I'll yet you know what it's really like there."

"Ok, John", began Akihisa, "Why are you telling me this? I haven't given you a reason to trust me. If anything, I've done the opposite. So why tell me all of that, when I could just tell Yuuji about what you just said, and exploit it? I mean, you did just say that you don't trust Yuuko, or her friends."

"Yeah, I did just say that, and you probably will tell whoever this Yuuji guy is what I just said. But I'd like to think of our little talk there as the beginning of a healthy student friendship. Besides, like I said, you do seem like a good kid, and if I didn't think so, I wouldn't have carried you all the way to the infirmary, now wouldn't have I?"

"Good point", replied Akihisa, "Why did you stay in the infirmary anyway?"

"Oh, well, as soon as the nurse there saw me carrying you, she buggered off. Didn't even bother asking any questions, like 'how did this kid get hurt?', or 'where did you find him?' or even 'why is he slung over your shoulder?', or anything else. I just passed you to her, and she just slapped you on the bed. Seemed preoccupied at the time. So I decided to hang around and make sure that you were fine. Apparently unlike that nurse lady. Bit of a bitch, if I must say so myself.

"Huh, well she has been pretty neglectful- wait, what about me being slung over your shoulder?"

"Another story for another time."

"Well then", smiled Akihisa, "I'll look forward to it."

"Sure", replied John, "Me too."

"Hola, John!"

John and Akihisa then looked down one of the corridors to see the rest of the Prometheans and Riley and Amy approaching them, each one of them carrying various weapons for some reason.

"Er", began John, "Why are you carrying weapons? (And why is it that it feels completely normal to say that?)"

"Well", said a boy with chocolate coloured skin, sunglasses, a walking stick, and a Katana, "After you told us to meet back in Class A when you left, the others put two and two together, and realised that the rest of us were in Class A."

"Yeah, and..."

"And then they asked us to leave", said another boy with Green hair and eyes, a gloved hand, a tattoo on his right cheek, and a mace, "Rather impolitely, may I just say. When we asked why, they...erm...were rather forceful of it."

"I got a rifle", said Riley, who was holding a FAMAS-G2 rifle (Akihisa had meet him and Amy before, during the test of courage. They talked for a bit, but Akihisa left to be with his group of friends when it was their turn to go through. Not surprisingly, they failed).

"You got lucky", said Amy, "You got a rifle, and all I got was a goddamn sickle. What the actual hell am I meant to do with a sickle?"

 **"If you couldn't tell already"** , said a 6 foot robot with a scythe in one hand, and a war hammer in the other, **"We were able to grab some weapons when we won that fight against those weird cultist dudes (Though we did pass a few people on the way here, and they immediately ran in the opposite direction, for some reason). I got a scythe, Jacky boy got a katana, and Andre got a freakin' mace! And I was able to grab a hammer as well. Now all we need is a pair of arm guns, a high calibre sniper rifle, a katana sheath, a compact pistol, a revolver, a rapier, a guide on combining weapons, and we'll be like team RWBY."**

"I call dibs on Crescent Rose!" shouted the green haired boy.

"Um", started Akihisa with a nervous voice, "Is that a robot? Like an actual robot?"

"Yep."

"You are most correct."

"Si."

 **"Confirmed. I am an actual robot. I'm like Nora Valkyrie, R2-D2, media references, plain voyeurism, and Mountain Dew all rolled up into the adorable little maniac right in front of you!"**

"... I know I should be worried", began Akihisa, "But for some reason, I'm completely cool with this."

"Wha... seriously?" asked John, "Most people at this point would be pretty freaked out by this."

"Yeah, well, it seems that I'm not like most people."

"Huh, touché."

"Anyway", continued Akihisa, "Sorry about my friends. And the rest of Class F. They really are good people when you get to know them-"

"I'm not entirely convinced about that", said the boy with the walking stick, who was twirling around his katana in his free hand.

"Yeah", said Amy, "They killed our chances to be friends faster then Rooster Teeth killed Pyrrha Nikos."

Everyone just looked at her with wide eyes and mouths.

"What, too soon?"

 **"Why"** , drawled out the robot, **"Why would you do this?"**

Akihisa then just fell to the floor, whimpering, though there was the occasional cry of, "Yang is still the better waifu, Hideyoshi…"

"I'll take the crying and whimpering as you've binge watched the entire RWBY series like Mateuz?" asked John.

 **"Whiterose and Bumblebee for life."**

"Lancaster... Is... Better...", said Akihisa through his whimpers.

 **"Don't fucking start with me boy."**

"So", began John, "You lot got into a fight on the first day, and won? Great first impressions you guys."

 **"Oh shut up"** , said the robot, **"We got you a souvenir at the gift shop while we were at it, albeit the gift shop being the KOed cultist dudes."**

The robot then chucked it's hammer at John, who caught it with one hand, and inspected it with curiosity, "So we just need to beat up these cultist guys, and we'll have our own armoury."

"Where do they get this things?" asked Riley as he aimed down the sights of his rifle, "And where do they hide them? And how where they even able to sneak these things into the school anyway? I'd imagine the teachers would stop them, lest someone have an accident."

"Yeah", said John as he looked at the robot, "Wouldn't want anymore of those."

"Well", began Akihisa, "I'm pretty sure that they have a dealer down- oh... OH!"

"Oh?"

"OH! Hahaha... nice one, dude."

"I like to dabble in humour from time to time. Anyway, what was that about a dealer?"

"Right, yeah", continued Akihisa, "Well from what I've heard, the FFF have an arms dealer downtown. Real shady guy. Can get you anything you want, for a price. Apparently he has ties to the Shi No Tenshi Cartel, but the cops are so corrupt, that they can't touch him."

"Right", muttered John, "That might be something that I'll need to look in to."

Akihisa looked at him, not fully hearing what he said, and wondering if it was anything important. He then felt something, and looked down at the green haired boy, to see him stealthily glaring at John, with the eyes of a, well, if looks could kill, he would be able to take down a rhino. It then became apparent that John saw this, as he nervously scratched the back of his head.

"So, um", said Akihisa, "I'm Akihisa Yoshi by the way. I don't think I've actually had the pleasure of learning the rest of your names... so, er..."

"Oh", began the boy with the walking stick, "I apologise. My name is Jack. Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise."

"I'm Andre", said the boy on the floor, who picked himself up off the floor, stood up straight, and brushed himself off, " Certified Spanish guy with a knack for web original shows and the only sane man in this family."

 **"Sane is really pushing it at this point"** , said the robot, **"And to finish off our introductions, I'm Mateuz. Adorable little genius with a fetish for references and a body pillow of Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman. #No regrets or shame #tag your friends #retweet #Zendaya is my Waifu don't judge."**

"Oh", nervously responded Akihisa, "Well, it's nice to meet you, Mateusz. I'm sure we'll-"

 **"You don't say my name like that."**

"What?"

 **"It's Mateuz, not Mateusz."**

"Yeah, that's what I said. Mateusz."

 **"No, it's Mateuz. No 's'."**

"Why?"

 **"'Cause I'm a rebel."**

"Ignore him", said John, "Mateuz is a weapons grade moron."

 **"No, I'm the cliché comic relief of this group. There's a difference."**

"There really isn't", muttered Akihisa.

"Any who", said John as he looked at the rest of the Prometheans, "I think I'll be heading back to Class A now. You guys coming?"

"Yeah, sure", replied Andre, "I've got nothing better to-"

Several students then ran past them, while others began to pile up in the corridors, confusing the group of 7 in the middle of the hallway.

 **"Oh look, plot progression. Let's see what it is."**

"Hey", said Akihisa to a boy who had jus arrived, "Genji, what's going on?"

"Didn't you hear?" said Genji Hiraga, Class D representative, "Class B and Class E are having a ESB war! We're watching the show."

"Class B and Class E? Oh this should be good!"

 **"Wait a minute! Is that a Pro-Genji?!"**

"Holy crap, is that a robot!?" shouted out Genji.

"Yes he is", replied Andre.

 **"Yes I am, Mr Pro-Genji. But the most important question is, how does it feel when Bastion keeps stealing your glory in play of the game?"**

"Please pretend he does not exist."

"Who?" asked Jack.

"I like you today."

"Alright everyone", said a student with a jar of money and a clipboard and pen, "Place your bets, place your bets!"

"I got money on Class E", said one student, "Gotta always bet on the underdogs."

"Nah dude, Class B's gonna wipe the floor with them", said another student.

"What, you mean like they did with Class F?"

"... Huh, suppose you've got a point."

"Alright, well", said John, "Like I said, I'm gonna head back."

"You don't wanna see what this is all about?" asked Andre.

"Nah, I'm fine."

"Right", continued Andre, "Well, do you mind taking my mace with you, so you can put it somewhere safe?"

Andre then chucked his mace at John, who caught it with his spare hand, "Blooming heck, be careful with this thing. It's very pointy."

 **Oi, take my scythe with you as well. Put it somewhere where I can find it."**

Mateuz then chucked his scythe at John, who barely caught it with his two full hands, "Seriously, be careful with these things, they're sharp and pointy. Very sharp. Very pointy."

"Hey", said Jack as he chucked his sword at John, "Take this as well while you're at it."

"OW! For fuck sake, you three! Don't chuck these things at me! You almost cut my arm off, ya fools!"

John then sighed, and looked at Riley, "Is there like a locker or something where I can put these bloody things?"

"As a matter of fact, there is", replied Riley, who stopped pretending to no scope people with his rifle, "(Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, predator missile ready for launch. Sweet, I'm on a kill streak) If you'll follow me, I'll show you where they are."

"Right, thanks", said John as he followed Riley to the lockers, with his hands filled with very sharp objects, while Amy, Akihisa, Mateuz, Andre, and Jack stayed behind to watch the war.

"This should be good", said Amy to the girl next to her, who was herself worried about the fact that she had a sickle in her hand, and she was standing next to a 6 foot robot with shoulder cannons.

"Hey", called out Miki Tamano, "Has anyone seen Miharu?"

"No", said another student, "She's probably at wherever she goes in this damn school for long periods of time."

"It makes you wonder what she gets up, doesn't it?" said Miki.

"No."

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, Miharu was actually with them, just out of sight. In an unused room, in an empty part of the corridor, she peaked through the sliding door at the group of 7, watching and listening to them talk amongst themselves, and taking in their new and old features:

Diego had dyed his hair green. Well, from what she remembered of him, green was his favourite colour. And he got a new arm. Well, that's... something. Wonder what he got as a replacement. Hopefully now, he's also more confident with his sexuality, as that was what got him in that hell that they all shared to begin with. It takes a lot of strength to not crumble against those who would reject you because of which way you go, so hopefully he found it.

Kyle got a new robot body. Look's custom made. The guys always had their own signature style of armour when they made their first ones together: practicality first, looks never. That was their thing about them. They never cared for making their things look user friendly. Looks like that translated into their mechanics as well.

Samuel got new shades, and a hoodie with a red skull on it (Probably Kyle. He always had a knack for art), and had a custom made walking stick (Had their own style on it, which is less easy to tell than with Kyle, but it was there). Hopefully he was able to cope better with his blindness than he was 7 years ago. Back then he definitely had self-confidence issues because of that little fact, but he was starting to overcome it by the time she was... thrown away.

And finally, Sebastian. The one she cared for the most, and vice versa. At least, she thought he cared about her. But then he abandoned her, for reasons she couldn't comprehend. From what Miharu had seen, he hadn't changed one bit, yet he had also changed so much. His face carried so much more detail that couldn't be seen with the eyes of the naïve. His looks carried the burdens of all that he had done over the years, and his eyes showed the true side of him, that only Miharu could see. He was two sides to the same coin, and so much more. He was both a soldier, and a monster. A killer, and a warrior. An ally, and a foe. A loyalist, and a separatist. A good friend, and a ruthless enemy. When Miharu met him when they were 5, she was scared, and confused. But Sebastian wasn't. He had been born into the suffering, while she hadn't. Miharu and Sebastian were rarely separated during their many years together. She had hoped that she could save him, and in a way, she imagined that she did.

She then saw the crowds gathering around the corridors, and saw Akihisa talking to her class's representative. Apparently there was to be a war between Class B and E.

Damn.

If this is true, then this room might be used as a staging point for one of the classes. If she wants to remain hidden from Sebastian, then she'll have to find a way to sneak out without drawing attention to herself.

Except she didn't want to remain hidden from Sebastian. She wanted to see him again. To talk to him. To confront him. To hear his voice again. To hear him explain why. To understand why he did what he did. But she also didn't want to do it in front of so many people, where they could hear all their secrets. She had made friends in the time that she was in Fumizuki, and if they learnt of what they did 6 and a half years ago, they would never want to speak to her ever again. She needed a place where she was sure that they were alone together, where no one else could interfere, so they could be open to each other, without the fear of being discovered.

 _Think tactically_ , Miharu thought to herself, _Where would I be able to intercept him, where he is alone, and there is no one else around? What part of the school was the most secluded, where I can find him on his-_

Miharu was broken out of her thoughts by a shout from Sebastian. Miharu panicked, and thought that he might have seen her, and she quickly quietened her breathing, and froze in position, making sure to not make even the slightest of sounds. She peeped through the door, and let out a breath of relief, as Sebastian was simply complaining about having to carry the weapons of his brothers (Where did they even get those things, anyway? And where could she get one?). She then saw Sebastian ask the boy from Class A if there were lockers is the school, to which the boy bubbly answered (The boy himself seemed somewhat familiar, but from where else over then the war against Class A, she did not know). The boy then started to walk down a corridor, with John following, leaving the boy's sister, the school idiot, Kyle, Diego, and Samuel behind to watch the war unfold. The two passed the door to the room which Miharu occupied, and made no sign that they knew of her presence. Once they were a distance away, Miharu checked both ways to make sure that no one was looking her way, and sneaked out of the room, intending to further follow Sebastian, and find a place to corner him. As she began her quiet pace, she heard a creak in the floorboards behind her, and tuned around to see the one person she knew she couldn't hide from, even if she tried.

"Natalia", said Samuel as he quietly walked towards Miharu, his walking stick gently sweeping the floor in front of him.

"You always were impossible to hide from, Samuel", replied Miharu, "And I go by Miharu now."

"Ah, I apologise", said Samuel as he stopped in front of Miharu, "I also go by a new name. Jack. Sebastian has adopted a new alias as well."

"Jack. It's a nice name."

"Likewise to you."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...Nata... Miharu, if it is any consolation, I, Diego and Kyle, are deeply sorry about what happened. We protested against Sebastian, but, well, you know how stubborn he can be."

"Don't blame yourselves. I'm sure you did what you could."

"I'd like to think that too..."

"... _Sigh_. Is this the part where you try to stop me? Where you try to intervene and stop my completely justified ass kicking from raining down upon the asshole that is Sebastian?"

"Quite the opposite."

"Huh?"

"Sebastian goes by a new name now. John. But he will try to avoid you. I know his heart is in the right place, and he has good intentions, but he has skewed ways of doing it."

"So?"

"I believe that he honestly things that he is protecting you by doing nothing to you, and even avoiding you."

"He believes that by not getting associated with me", began Miharu, "He is keeping me safe."

"To be real with you, Miharu, every time we made an enemy over the last 6 and a half years, we lost those said enemies. We've also made a lot of friends over the years as well. Very powerful friends. There are very few left in the world who know of our existence, and are willing to try and find us. But Sebasti... _sigh_... John, is still paranoid about people coming to find us. He doesn't show it, but I can all but see it. I wouldn't be surprised if he suddenly tells us to pack up and leave."

"I'm not letting that happen", sternly stated Miharu with unbreakable determination in her voice, "He's not leaving me behind. Not again."

"I should hope so", calmly said Jack, "He's already turned down the corridor with Riley. Go. You might not get another chance."

Miharu looked behind her to see that Sebastian and the other boy were gone from her sight, and inside her welled a determination, and anger of a woman scorned.

"Locker room. That's where they're heading", muttered Miharu as she began a brisk walk to the locker room. She then turned around to face Jack, "Thanks Jack-"

She stopped herself when she saw that Jack was no longer looking in her direction. Instead, he was quietly rejoining the Class A boy's sister, the school idiot, Kyle, and Diego, as a few other people from Class A and the rest of Class D join the crowd, eagerly waiting for the battle to begin.

"Never had time for thanks, did you?" whispered Miharu to herself, as she began to jog down the corridor. She was going to find out why Sebastian abandoned her. Then, she was going to make sure that he never left her again.

* * *

"Akane, What are you doing here?" asked Amy, as over a dozen members of Class A joined the large crowd in the hallway. She seemed to have a look of distain for the other girl, though she didn't act on it.

"Well, the Wi-Fi in Class A is down, we're all bored", began Akane, "And honestly, we've all had our fill of Yuuko's 'We're superior than everyone else' horse shit."

"She's beginning to sound more like a Nazi the more I hear about her", said Andre.

"""""OH MY GOD! HOT SPANISH GUY!""""" yelled most of the girls from Class A, save for Akane and Amy. Many of the other girls in the crowd saw Andre, and began to squeal as well, and began descending on Andre like a pack of vultures.

"Back! Back you bastard heathens!" called out Andre as the girls started to swarm him, "Jesus Christ have you people never heard of Tinder or someth- ARGH! SOMEONE JUST TRIED TO GRAB MY NONO PLACE! ¡ALGUIEN! ¡ALGUIEN AYÚDEME! ¡POR FAVOR! THIS IS WHY I HATE CHICKS!"

 **"Gentlemen. You can't fight in here! This is the war room!"** said Mateuz in an attempt to calm the situation.

No one said a word for a few moments, and everyone looked at the tall robot in confusion.

 **"... Really, no one gets that? Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb? No one's ever heard of it? Came out in 1964? Was in the AFI's 100 years... 100 laughs? It's considered one of cinema's best comedies, and no one here has ever heard of it? It literally ends with Slim Pickens' character riding an atomic bomb like a rodeo bull. How could you not have heard of it?"**

"Why would anyone hear have seen a film that came out 58 years ago?" asked Akane.

"More importantly", said one of the class C students, "Why is there a robot here, and why is it sprouting made up movies?"

 **"Dr. Strangelove is not a made up movie!"** protested Mateuz.

Before a fight could start over a piece of cinematography that no one had ever heard of, several students from Class E marched up the hallway, lead by a female student with greyish blue hair, purple eyes, and a ponytail.

"Everybody clear this hallway", ordered the girl, "We'll need this for the war!"

"""""Awww... Boo!"""""

"Oh shut up!"

"Hey Yoshiko!" said Genji with a smile on his face, as he waved at the girl.

"Oh, hey there Genji!" replied Yoshiko as she happily waved back.

 **"My, oh my,"** began Mateuz as he playfully punched Genji in the arm, **"Does Pro-Genji happen to have finally acquired Mercy as his one and only? Are you going to plunge your sword into her dark cave and quench the dragon within?"**

"Hah", called out one random student, "I get it. The dragon in that reference is... I shan't say."

"Why is there a 6 foot robot here and why is it asking about our relationship?!" called out Yoshiko in a slight panic.

 **"Why is everyone always focusing on me? You know I don't like it when people express fear of me! Why can't anyone focus there attention on the green haired Spanish guy, or the blind black Nigerian guy!?"** Mateuz then looked at Jack, **"Er, no offence."**

"What?" asked Jack, "It was a statement of facts, even though I have no idea what colour is. It's not racist."

 **"I know, but it's just that we live in a very sensitive time, where everyone is easily offended, and, to be honest, if I pissed you off, you would literally cut me in half without trying."**

"True."

"Anyway", began Yoshiko, "Everyone needs to leave now. As of now, this hallway intersection is now Class E territory."

"Can we migrate to this hallway?" asked Akihisa.

"No, you're being deported."

"What?" asked Andre, "Why have you gotta go and be Donald Trump?"

"Wha- I am not Donald Trump!" screamed Yoshiko.

 **"Quick, everyone!"** shouted Mateuz, **"Get into the rooms in the hallway and hide before Donald Trump builds a wall to keep us out!"**

"I AM NOT DONALD TRUMP! And you can't use the rooms either. We need those as well."

"Why don't we hide in the far ends of the Classrooms", began Amy, "And you can use the rest of the rooms to your hearts extent?"

"All we would like to do is watch", said Jack, "So it might not be that much of an inconvenience to you if we stay as silent as we can."

"Don't you have UPads or something which you can watch the battle on or something?" asked Yoshiko in frustration.

"Wi-Fi's down", answered Akane, "The schools adding some new AI into the system or something, so the UPads are out of use until they're in since with the new upgrades."

"Ugh, fine", said Yoshiko as she finally caved, "But no one makes a sound, and you are to stay in the rooms, even when the battle begins, alight?"

"""""Ugh, fine""""", went all the students as they all filled into the six rooms in the corridor intersection, with Yoshiko, a few of her Class E forces, Genji. Akane, Akihisa, Amy, Jack, Andre, Mateuz, and the entire group of Class A students filling into one of the rooms closest to the intersection.

"It's a bit cramped here", went one of the Class A students.

"Hey, who's hand is that?" asked Andre.

"I'm not sorry", said a female student.

Andre just replied with a frustrated and spiteful grunt.

"So", began Akihisa as he gestured to Akane, "Sorry, I, um, didn't catch your name."

"Don't be sorry", said Akane as she looked back at Akihisa, "I'm Akane Higa."

"Oh, I'm-"

"I know who you are", interrupted Akane, "You're Akihisa Yoshi. World class idiot. Hell, everyone in this school knows who you are."

"Okay, that's either a good thing or a bad thing."

"It's both. Like I said, you're know as the world class idiot. Even our faction of Class A think that you're right to be in Class F. And we detest the grade ranking system."

"Wait, your faction?" asked Andre.

"Yeah, well", began Amy, "Despite what Yuuko says about Class A being united an' all, it's a blatant lie. There are two factions within Class A: Yuuko's majority group, filled with those who follow her, willingly or not, and then there's everybody else. We're everybody else."

 **"So Class A is in civil war?"** asked Mateuz as he started edging closer to the opposite side of the room.

"It hasn't gotten hot yet", said Akane, "But we are constantly teetering."

"Sounds like something people could take advantage of", said Akihisa.

"Let them try", said Akane with a smirk, "My guys are a lot tougher than some would think."

"True", said one Class A student proudly.

"So true", said another.

"Oh, I'm sorry", began Yoshiko as she spotted Mateuz scooting towards the far wall, "When did- When did I say you could move, you tin can?"

 **"Ignore me, Mercy"** , said Mateuz as he continued to slowly move towards the wall, **"Tell me about your relationship with Pro-Genji. I like to hear about that little high school romance."**

"You think me talking about my relationship with my boyfriend is going to make me ignore you?"

 **"I had hoped so. Besides, I like it when people talk. I like talking. It helps me relate to people. It helps me understand them. So if you talk about yourself, then I'll be able to understand you, and offer something in response that will relate to you in the current situation that you are in."**

"Well, o- Um, okay then. Genji and I first hit it off 2 weeks ago, during the test of courage that the year 3s set up. We partnered up together because there was no one else available. Now that I look at it, it was probably for the best. You know those old fairy tales where it was all 'love at first sight' and crap? Well I thought it was all ridiculous. But when we went in, when he helped me up when I fell, when we looked each other in the eyes, I realised, that they were true. The stories of love at first sight. They were real. I know it sounds corny as hell, and as cliché as possible, but, well, all my life I had dreamt of the perfect man, and now, with Genji..."

Yoshiko looked at Genji with a blush and a smile, while Genji wore the same expression on his face."

"... I've finally found him."

"As I you, my darling", replied Genji, with a soft smile.

Yoshiko blushed even further, her cheeks becoming as red as strawberries. She then walked over Genji, who had also gotten up, and they pressed their lips together, their tongues currently waging a bloody war from dominance over the other, only the tanks were their tongues and their ammunition was saliva.

"""""Aaaawwww…""""", cooed everyone else, before tilting their heads to the side at the increase in horniness betwixt the 2, """""Oh my."""""

"0 to 100 real quick", said Akane.

"You know, if the FFF finds out about this, then let's just say they'll have a bit more to say than just words", said Akihisa.

Genji broke the kiss to look at Akihisa, "Let them. Let them see Yoshiko and I happy together. I want them to be jealous. It makes me feel awesome."

"Alright then. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Yoshiko quickly pushed Genji off of him, "Ack, no, horniness later. Preferably under the sheets."

"""""Ewww…"""""

 **"No, please, tell me more."**

The group then heard a soft whirling noise, and looked to it's source to see that Mateuz had reconfigured his pointer finger on his right hand into a drill, and was drilling through the wall.

"Um", began Amy, "Hate to be the one to ask, but, what're you doing?"

 **"Drilling through the wall."**

"I was pouring my heart out to you, you know", started Yoshiko, "Were you seriously using that as cover so you could get away with... doing whatever it is you're doing?"

 **"What, me? Oh no. God no. I was listening to you. I was just multi-tasking. It's a skill I've acquired over the many years. I was listening to you, but I was also scooting towards the far side of the room, so I could drill a hole in the wall. It's these incredible gifts that I have acquired over the years that helps me out of situations... And occasionally into them as well, but hey, to us, their own."**

"Okay, next question: why are you drilling a hole in the wall (And why does that sound completely normal in this school, even if I'm asking a robot)?"

 **"If we're going to be cooped up in here, I would at least like to know what's going on in the corridors while we're in here."**

Mateuz then retracted his finger drill, which reconverted back into a finger. He then tapped a button on his right arm, and a small hatch opened on the bottom of his wrist. He then pulled a small camera from it, connected to his wrist by a wire, and shoved it into the hole in the wall. Mateuz then quickly scooted back to the group at the far end of the room, extending the wire as he went. He then sat down with the group, and tapped part of his head, popping out a small projector in the side of his head, which then started blinking a green light. Suddenly, a green light shone from the projector, and a green projection of the hallway outside the room shone on the opposite wall, showing he hallway intersection, and the entrances to the other rooms.

"What did you just do?" asked Yoshiko in surprise.

"He's showing off", said Andre as he rolled his eyes.

 **"I am not!"** defended Mateuz, **"I simply put a camera in the wall, and projecting it onto the... wall... I guess, so that 1, everyone could see it so they wouldn't be confused as to what is happening outside, 'cause we probably won't be able to see it, but we will hear it, and 2, I want everyone to see how much of a use I can be, so in the future, they will look to me for support in their problems, so that they will owe me favours that they will have to pay, one way or another."**

"So you are showing off, said Jack.

 **"... I guess I am."**

{VUMM VUMM} {VUMM VUMM}

"Everyone, hush now, the adults are going to have a chat", said Yoshiko as she took her phone out of her pocket, and answered it, "Hello... Yep Hiromi, we're in position... uh-huh... yep... right, I'll get the others on conference call... right... see you when this is over."

She then hung up, placed another call, and put the phone to her ear.

"Alright then, guys and gals, it's me, Yoshiko. Hiromi gave us the go ahead. The time for preparation has ended, and the war has officially begun... You in position, Ayumi… What about you, Hirohito... How about you, Tomi... Right, hold position until they come down. We'll move when they pass this intersection. See you when it kicks off."

She then hung up her phone, put it back in her pocket, and looked at the 3 other Class E students in the room.

"Showtime, guys. We got the go ahead, now all we need to do is wait for the enemy forces to pass this area, and move to Class B. Remember, a good plan does not a win make, so be sure to check your corners and make sure no one tries to get the jump or see any of us as we move up."

"Ok, I'm guessing that your plan is to draw out the Class B representative Nemoto's forces, slip past them as they cross this intersection, and take out Nemoto while he's alone?" asked Akane.

"...Yep", answered Yoshiko, "That's pretty much it."

"Ok, my turn", said Jack, "Whom is your leader, may I ask?"

"Hiromi Nakabyashi. Class E representative."

"Ok, so I assume that you plan to draw out your foes numbers by presenting themselves with an opportunity that they would not be able to resist, like, let us say, presenting your Class E representative as vulnerable, yet guarded heavily, as to not make the deception seem to good to be true. So you leak false information to say that perfect deception, and your foes come for you."

"Also pretty accurate."

"Ok, that's a nice plan", began Akihisa, "But I've spent enough time with Yuuji to see the flaws in that plan."

"What?" sternly said Yoshiko, "I'm being assessed by the school idiot now? What part of our plan is flawed, may I ask?"

"Yes you may."

"..."

"Oh right, yeah, well firstly, how do you know that they'll all come? Nemoto might just send out a few squads to take Nakabyashi out?"

"Well then, they'll just call for reinforcements-"

"Or they fall back all the way to Class B, or one of these classrooms, then they'll find us all in here, and your entire plan is botched. Plus, if they do come here in force, they might check the classrooms on their way. Also, Nemoto always leaves behind at least 10 other students to guard him, and they've just below Class A, so... sorry to burst your bubble, but it had to be said."

"I... you..."

 **"He's not wrong."**

"I know. And that's what scares me."

"Okay", began Andre, "Let's say this plan does work. How long until your enemy passes by?"

"Oh, um, well, by our calculations, about 2 minutes."

"I guess we'll just have to see how this goes, compadres."

* * *

 _7 minutes later..._

* * *

 **"Right, I'm gonna be the first one to say it. Akihisa was right. Your plan is either botched, your timing was way off, or they just didn't fall for your trap"** , called out Mateuz, as he turned off his projector, retracted the wire from his camera in the wall, and placed the camera in his wrist. Another faint rumbling could be heard from outside the school while Mateuz retracted his camera into his hand, knocking him of balance for a second.

"Shut up", stubbornly said Yoshiko, "We can still make this work. We just need to improvise-"

"Yeah, no", said Andre, "You said it would be 2 minutes till they pass. That was 5 minutes ago. Your plan failed."

"Oh please, this is just a hiccup. They'll pass. We just need to be patient-"

"No, they won't."

"Andre's right", said Akihisa, "It might be best for you to fall back to Class E and regroup. Maybe come up with a new tactic."

"Yoshiko, sweetie", said Genji, "They do have a point."

"...Fine", said Yoshiko in frustration, "We'll head back to Class E and reassess our strategy."

Yoshiko then opened the door to the room, and walked out into the hallway, followed by everybody else. The other students in the other rooms took notice of this, and in a matter of moments, everyone was crowded together in the hallway.

"What now?" asked a female Class E student.

"We go back to our classroom, Ayumi", said Yoshiko, "And we try to salvage whatever we can from this."

"Excuse me, miss Yoshiko", began Jack, "I hate to be the possible bearer of bad news, but is this piece of the building the only way to Class E?"

"Well", began Yoshiko, "It's the most easiest-"

"Is it?"

"Well, I mean, it's the most logical-"

"Is it?"

Yoshiko's eyes widened as she came to realisation of what Jack was implying.

"No."

{VUMM VUMM} {VUMM VUMM}

Yoshiko quickly grabbed the phone from her pocket, and hastily answered it.

"Hiromi, I... woah woah, slow down... what do you mean... how could they-"

{BTZZZZ}

As the other end of the line went dead, Yoshiko heard distant shouting. and looked to the end of the opposite corridor where Class E was, and saw flashes of light and faint figures battling each other. She also faintly saw that the ESB field had gone up, and she gasped in shock.

"SHIT!" called out Yoshiko as she started running towards the fight, "T-they travelled down through the first floor, and circled around behind us! All Class E members with me! Hiromi's in deep shit right now, and we're gonna help her out!"

As the various members of Class E fell back to the fight, everyone else just stood in the hallway, unsure of what to do now.

"Wow. Who didn't see that coming?" sarcastically asked Andre.

"Nobody, evidently", bluntly said Amy, "Nobody didn't see it coming. Everyone saw that coming."

"I didn't", Akihisa said as he raised his hand, "I didn't see it-"

"Hush, my dear. The adults are having a conversation."

 **"People here really take these wars seriously, don't they?"** asked Mateuz.

"Well, considering how these wars can dictate the quality of our education, I would expect nothing less", said Genji.

 **"Hm. Hey, Pro-Genji-"**

"Please stop calling me that."

 **"How did you know that Class B and Class E were going to have a war anyway? And why here specifically?"**

"Oh, well, news spreads quickly about wars starting up", answered Genji, "We were even given UPads to watch them on if we wanted. But here specifically, well, I think one of the Class B or C students said something about it, and the rumour just spread to everyone else."

"It seems as though miss Yoshiko and her leader were so confident in their plan, that they forgot to account for the most basic of flaws", pointed out Jack, "Overconfidence makes you careless."

"What do we do now?" asked a Class D student.

"No one's got anything better to do, have they?" asked Akihisa.

"""""No."""""

"Then I say we follow them and see how this plays out."

"""""Sweet!"""""

All the students there then proceeded to head down the corridor, eager to watch how this war would unfold before them.

* * *

 _At the beginning of the day..._

* * *

 _"Principal Toudou", began Ms. Takahashi, "I'm not sure if it is a good idea to allow class B and E to wage their war today."_

 _"Oh", began Principal Toudou as she sat at her desk, facing the large window in front of her, "And why not?"_

 _"Well, we're still adding the new AI to the system, and I am not completely sure what the result would be. It may result in a glitch in the system."_

 _"God forbid we haven't had enough of those", muttered the principal_

 _"Pardon, principal?"_

 _"I understand your concerns, Ms. Takahashi", replied the principal, "But I have already done the calculations. The new upgrades in the system should only affect how many participates are in the war, so no harm, no fowl. Oh, and the Wi-Fi as well, but people can live without that for a few hours."_

 _"Wait, what about the participates?"_

 _"Well, it seems that while the system is still down, any class can join the battle. The original members of the war will still be there, and their representatives will still need to be taken down to win, but for the rest of the day, anyone in the year will be able to join the war as allies of one class or the other."_

 _"And you are not concerned by this?" asked Ms. Takahashi with worry in her voice, "What if the school becomes a massive battleground? We'll be backed up on remedial classes, and everyone will be fighting each other. It'll be a battle royale scenario. Not only that, but the students have been known to be... Aggressive, in their means of winning these wars. I can't count how many time we've had to pay for damaged or destroyed property, and we've only just fully repaired the damage to the building from Class A and Class F's second ESB War. Who knows how much damage they could do if everyone was involved in a war?"_

 _The principal then turned her chair around to face Ms. Takahashi, and looked her in the eyes, "Well, if that does happen, then it should be very interesting to watch how the student body reacts to it. Unless they can calmly rationalise what their situation is, natural instinct tends to take over a person when they are thrust into a situation that they don't understand, either fully, or in the slightest. In the mean time, aren't there 4 new students waiting at the entrance who need to be shown to their new class?"_

 _"3, techinically, Ma'am (One of them's a robot or something), But they do seem like a colourful group of individuals."_

 _"Well, we already have plenty of those, so they should be no problem. Show them to their new classroom, Ms. Takahashi. I look forward to seeing how they do in this fine school."_

 _"...Very well then, Principal Toudou", said Ms. Takahashi, with hidden frustration in her voice._

 _As she turned to leave, a Year 2 Class B student walked in, holding a stack of papers._

 _"Uh, Principal", said the Class B student, "Mr Fukuhara told me to bring these up."_

 _"Yes yes, just leave them on my desk", replied the Principal._

 _Ms. Takahashi left the office as soon as the Class B student quickly placed the papers on the Principal's desk, who then left in a hurry. The Principal smiled to herself. If she had not noticed the student eavesdropping on their conversation, she wouldn't have given that little info dump to Ms. Takahashi about the bug in the system. The most likely thing that he would do would be to tell his class representative about the bug in the system, and try to work their way around it. Oh yes, today's fight was going to be fun indeed._

 _The Principal started to file away the papers, but then thought back to the new students that were joining the school. The Principal was hesitant to accept them at first, but after seeing their entrance exams, she was incredible surprised at their intelligence. Even so, she was prepared to send the one with the disability to Class F, but it took some, as they would put it, some rather persuasive methods, and even a phone call from supposed government officials to get him into Class A._

 _Principal Toudou stopped filing the papers, and opened a draw in her desk. She then pulled out 4 sets of papers form the draw, and laid them out on her desk. Why would the Japanese government call just to get a single student into Class A? Come to think of it, the man who called didn't even sound Japanese. He sounded awfully like an American. So why were the Americans calling to make sure that someone got in a specific Class? She tried to pull up information on the internet on them, but it just kept redirecting her to something in some video game called 'Halo', or something. She was able to get passed that, but the closest thing that she got to information on them was a name: Christopher Mason. But as soon as she saw it, her computer was hacked by someone, who turned out to be untraceable, and all the information on it was subsequently deleted._

 _Just who were these new students?_

* * *

 _30 minutes later..._

* * *

 _"If what my underling said is true", began Kyouji Nemoto as he and Yuuka Koyama sat together in Class B, "Then we'll be able to pull anyone we want into the fight, which means-"_

 _"You want me and you to team up. Again", interrupted Yuuka as she looked at him with a tired and exasperated look, "Or, you just need me as backup in case this war goes against your favour."_

 _"Well, yes", bluntly said Kyouji, "But, I also figured that our partnership could extend to the rest of my plans."_

 _"What do you mean?"_

 _"Oh my dear Yuuka, you see, once we crush these Class E bugs, I figured that if this glitch in the system somehow, let's say, extend further than just today, we can combine our strength, and challenge Class A."_

 _"Seriously? I'm not exactly in a position to trust you, with both your reputation, our previous relationship, and that cross-dressing fetish of yours..._

 _"Class F forced me to do that and you know it."_

 _"Yeah, Class F beat you. And today you'll be fighting people of higher intelligence than them."_

 _"Only slightly. And even so, Class E are arrogant, and self confident. I mean, how do you think we learnt of their plans?"_

 _"Again, you lost to Class F, and today, you are fighting Class E. If you lost to Class F, then how can I trust you to fight against Class A? Our forces are hardly going to be unified if I can't trust you."_

 _"It doesn't matter if our forces are split in two. We'll still have the numbers, and besides, from what the rumours have said, Class A isn't as united as Yuuko says it is. There are those in Class A who oppose Yuuko, and would rather do their own thing. If we take advantage of this, we can split Class A in two, and steamroll them."_

 _"... If you lose this war against Class E, then I will have no faith in you. You'll be on your own."_

 _"Don't worry. I have you with me. Together, we will destroy them."_

* * *

 _Now..._

* * *

"CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! FUCK! SHIT! SHIT! FUCK! BALLS! DICK! COCK! DICK! FUCK!" continuously screamed Yoshiko as she ran into the ESB field, and immediately caught sight of 3 Class E students fending off 5 Class B students, their avatars slowly being worn down.

"Hey, it's Yoshiko!" called out one Class E student.

"We're save!" shouted another.

"Crap, what's going on?" asked Yoshiko.

One of the students disengaged from the fight, and approached Yoshiko, "Class B learnt of our plans. They grabbed Mr. Hasegawa, went down and travelled through the first floor, travelled back up, and attacked us from behind! From what we can gather now, Nemoto's in the field, under heavy guard, apparently Class C is amassing downstairs, Hiromi's trapped in our classroom with her guard, and we can't push through."

"Dammit", said Yoshiko in exasperation, "What are we fighting in?"

"All subject scores combined."

"What? That's not... fuck it. We'll just fight our way through."

Suddenly, Yoshiko heard rumbling behind her, and turned around to see that everyone from the hallway intersection had quickly caught up with her, much to her annoyance.

"What the- what are you all doing here?!"

 **"We wanted to watch"** , said Mateuz.

"Yeah that's pretty accurate", continued Akihisa.

"No, get out of here! You're all blocking the corridor-"

"AAAHHH!" called out one Class B student, "Is that a-"

 **"Yes, I am a robot. We have already established that. I am a robot, the green haired kid is Spanish, and the Nigerian kid is blind. Can we please move on, because this is getting obnoxious?"**

"Uh..."

"Anyway", interrupted Jack, "Maybe there is someway in which we could be of assistance?"

"Yeah", said Andre, "Ignoring the floating numbers and letters being projected by some sort of holographic field or whatever, maybe we can help?"

"Yeah, no", replied Yoshiko, "Other classes aren't allowed to fight in wars. It's against the rules."

 **"Oh balderdash"** , said Mateuz as he stepped into the field, eyeing the Class B students with his single glowing green eye, **"The rules have never stopped me before, and from what I've heard, neither has anyone in this entire damn school. I just need to get my bearing on with this, and HOLY CHRIST! What's with the gremlins?"**

"Those aren't gremlins", said Amy, "They're our avatars. They're what we fight with."

 **"Whatever. Just don't feed them after midnight, otherwise they'll multiply."**

"Oh, whatever", said Yoshiko, "I haven't got time to play babysitter. Summon!"

Yoshiko's avatar then appeared in a glowing circle, and adopted a battle stance. The rest of the Class E students summoned their avatars, and glared down the Class B students in front of them.

 **"Right, whatever"** , said Mateuz as he started tapping his non-existent chin, **"I just need to say the magic word and spawn in my magical little chibi gremlin version of me. You said summon to spawn your little chibi self, didn't you?"**

"Well, yeah, but-"

 **"Right then, summon! I guess."**

"Okay, no. 1, you're a goddam robot, so you shouldn't get an avatar, and 2-"

Suddenly, a circle of white and green light appeared just in front of Mateuz, and a cloud of grey dust flew out of the circle, gently fluttering around. The cloud then shifted itself into a chibi humanoid form, and then a robotic exoskeleton formed, followed by wiring and metal armour.

When the transformation finished, Mateuz's avatar could be fully seen. It was a chibi robot, with bulky, yet sleek armour, and thrusters on the feet and back, indicating speed and manoeuvrability. In several spots on the robot, there was no armour, showing that the avatar had sacrificed power and defence for speed. It's head was in the form of a futuristic pilot/police helmet, with a glowing green visor, a bulletproof face shield, a small breathing apparatus, and a tube that extended to a backpack that the robot wore. In the right hand, the robot held a futuristic scythe, with a glowing green blade, and a metal handle, and in the other hand, a small personal shield, while on it's back, what looked like a tactical ak-12, with a acog scope, silencer, grip, and grenade attachment. The avatar was completely coated in grey, with green markings, and a small pink flower painted on the left breastplate, and a chibi Mateuz painted on the right, along with his name written in Mandarin. The most amazing part of Mateuz's avatar, however, was it's score...

"Your score is 5,556 points!" called out Yoshiko, as all the other students, save for Andre and Jack, looked on in amazement. With a score like that, Mateuz would be able to surpass literally everyone at Class A, not to mention possible the entire student body. How could a machine do better in the entrance exams than the valedictorian, Shouko Kirishima, who was publicly known to have a combined score of about 4,500?

 **"Wait, 5,556? It's not 5,555? Welp, that's gonna bug me all fucking day."**

"How?! You're a machine! How can a machine do better than a human, much less the top ten students in Class A?"

"Trust me, he's full of surprises", said Andre as he and Jack walked into the field and joined Mateuz and the Class E students, "Well, if everyone is summoning their little holographic chibi minions, then I figured we'd do the same. Summon!"

"Same here, brother", said Jack, "Summon!"

Both their avatars appeared at the same time, and their looks and scores again caught everyone off guard. Andre's avatar wore a black leather trench coat, with it's front open, and a green symbol of a brown bear, native to Spain, painted on it's left pocket, and the Spanish flag on it's back. Underneath the trench coat, the avatar wore a grey shirt with a large symbol of a Valencia red rose, and a lightning strike going through it. It also wore black cargo pants, and black leather cargo boots, with black laces, and a green symbol of a lightning strike going across the side of both boots. It's right hand was gloved, and it's left hand had a tattoo of a green heart symbol with a plaster on it, and a saying in Spanish that read 'Los curadores del corazón de la naturaleza'. In it's right hand, it held some sort of taser and spiked knuckle duster hybrid weapon, and in it's left hand, it held a grey mace with a black handle. Jack's avatar, on the other hand, wore a grey hoodie, with the hood up, and a black mask over the lower side of it's face. The front of the hoodie had the symbol of a vampire bat on it, with green eyes and a red body, and on it's back was a katana sheath, and the words 'I'M 2 FAST 4 U!' written in white. On the top of it's face, there was scar that ran across it's eyes, which were dull and milky white, signalling his blindness. It also wore ripped jeans, and black and grey sneakers, and in it's hand, it held a katana with a silver blade and a black handle. Once again, what caught everyone of guard was their scores. Andre had amassed a score of 5,439, while Jack had a score of 4,954.

"""WHAT?!""" everyone present yelled when they saw what the two had scored. Seriously, these guys were smarter than all of the students in Class A combined, and it takes a lot to be smarter than that. Hell, even the fabled Mizuki Himeji couldn't possible pull that off, and she was one of the smartest students in the year!

"Seriously?!" screamed Yoshiko, "How are you that smart? You, green haired Spanish guy-"

"Andre. My name is Andre."

"Whatever. You have just under 5500 points, and you blind guy-"

"Jack."

"Again, whatever. You have just under 5000! How were you even able to get that? You. Are. Blind. How did you even write on the paper?"

"I didn't. The teachers asked me multiple questions, to which I answered to the best of my abilities. (Though I do feel like they were babying me for the entirety of that. It is rather insulting if I must say so)."

"... You know what?" began Yoshiko, "I don't care. I have been distracted for long enough?"

She then turned to the entire crowd behind her, "You all. You wanna help?"

"Sure."

"Why not?"

"Ok."

"I got nothing better to do."

"I wanna wipe that definite smug look off of Nemoto's face, because when is he without one, so hell's yeah I'm in!" called out Akihisa, who was still salty over what happened during the war Between Class F and Class B. He was then followed by a chorus of cheers and hoots of agreement.

"Alright then", confidently replied Yoshiko, "Here's what we're gonna do: we're gonna charge past these guys, save Hiromi, and kick Nemoto's ass!"

"""Yeah!"""

"Once you're in the field, summon your avatars, and help us in taking out Nemoto's troops."

"""Yeah!"""

"I suck at motivational speeches, so, let's just do this! On 3, we all charge, is that clear?"

"""HELL TO THE YEAH!"""

"(That was right in my ear) Alright then, on 3. 1... 2... 3!"

* * *

 _6 minutes later..._

* * *

"And here are the lockers", said Riley as he and John finally made it to the locker room, with Riley still holding his FAMAS-G2 rifle in one of his hands, and John still carrying all of the weapons he was given, though he had now slung them all under his left arm, "Sorry I took so long in the bathroom."

"You were in there for 13 minutes", remarked John, "What were you doing in there?"

"Let's just say that that was some bad sushi last night..."

John quickly shot him a grossed out look.

"Don't worry, I spent 5 minutes washing my hands with soap. Anymore and I would've rubbed my skin off."

"Well, I should hope so."

"What, that I rub my skin off of my hands?"

"No, that you washed them profusely."

"Ah, I see."

The 2 then heard rumbling on the floor above them, and looked up to see that the lights were flickering from all the commotion upstairs.

"Maybe whatever's going on up there has something to do with all of the guys we saw amassed in the corridor down on this floor", speculated John.

"That would make sense", replied Riley, "I should probably go and make sure that Amy is okay. I would hate it if she got hurt and I wasn't around to help her."

"I feel you, bro."

"Yeah. Anyways, I trust that you'll be able to find your locker yourself."

"Well, the teacher that showed us to Class A gave me a slip with told us which number our lockers were, so I assume that I'll be able to find it. Though how I'm gonna put these things in their lockers, I don't know."

"Well, I'll leave you to it", said Riley, as he walked towards the exit of the room, "If there's anything else you need to know, just ask me, and I'll show you."

"Right, thanks."

John then looked at the weapons in his left arm, and thought, 'I suppose I could just break them into pieces, stuff them into their lockers, and reassemble them like Lego later.'

He then put the weapons down, leaned them against a locker, took out 4 slips of paper from his pocket, and examined them, 'Locker's 602 to 605. Well I'm at..."

He looked at the locker next to him, and examined the number inscribed on it, 'Locker 12. Wow, I'm like, way off.'

"Oh, 'scuse me", John heard Riley say as he opened the locker room door.

"S'fine", another voice muttered.

John paused at the sound of that voice, and dared not move. He could hear footsteps moving from the entrance to where he stood, watching him all the time. Suddenly, he saw a Taser fly into a security camera, causing it to spark and fizzle with electricity, before shutting down, and allowing the Taser to fall to the ground. John then saw a shadow, right next to his, smaller than him, but unlike his, it seemed more human than he could ever be.

He dared not move a single muscle. Not till he had confirmation of who it was.

"6 and a half years ago, in Laos, you threw me into a cargo container on a train, and sent me halfway across southeast Asia. I was on that train for 3 weeks before it stopped in some docks in the fucking motherland, and shipped me all the way to Sapporo, in fucking Japan! And now you think you can just walk in on my life, and ignore me, like I don't even fucking exist!"

There was his confirmation.

John stood up straight, and looked to his right to see what was possible his greatest mistake ever. Standing before him was the girl he once loved, now a young woman, with hair once Violet, now burning orange, and eyes of anger, sorrow and confusion. She was his past come to haunt him, seeking remediation for what he had done. Oh how he wished he could turn back time, back to that fateful day in Laos, but what was done was done, and now, he found that he wasn't ready to face the consequences.

"Privet, Sebast'yan."

"Natalia."


	5. The first day: The chaos of warm things

"I have nothing to say to you", harshly rasped John, as he placed all of the weapons that he had slung under his arm onto the top of one of the locker rows, and began to move away from Natalia. Another loud buzzing noise could be heard from outside for just a short amount of time as well, though neither of them knew exactly what it was, though it did sound familiar to a helicopter of sorts.

"Bullshit", almost yelled Natalia in an angry voice, "Absolute bullshit. I want answers."

"You already know them", shot back John, stopping in place, looking back at Natalia with stern, cold eyes, and stood fixed to the spot.

"No, I fucking don't. I want to here it from you, why you cast me away when I was 10 and a half years old, for Christ's sake!"

"It was for your own good."

"No it- No it wasn't! I trusted you. I loved you. I stood at you side for 5 years and a half fucking years, through the torment and torture that Schneider and his... And his cronies subjugated us to, and was with you when-"

"When we escaped the torment. I know. I should know. I was there."

"Exactly my point. We were side by side for a very long time, and as much as I hate myself for saying it now, I cared so goddamn much about you. You and the others."

"As I you."

"Yeah fucking right. If you cared about me so much, then why did you throw me away?"

"Like I said, I have nothing to say to you, Natalia", said John as he turned around, and began to walk away again, his hands unconsciously shifting to fists.

"No, this isn't how this works", angrily said Natalia as she walked closer to John, as he continued to walk away, "This is where you confess that you were wrong for abandoning me, and where I slap you for making me think about ways to hurt you everyday for my entire life, while also hating myself and you, and simultaneously chasing after a girl who' s like a less emo fuckboy version of you. I fucking loved you, and you don't get to just ignore me, and walk away. Hey, look at me."

Natalia grabbed John's shoulder, and spun him around, looking him dead in his multicoloured eyes.

"LOOK AT ME, SEBASTIAN!"

Her eyes began to well up, and a single tear rolled down her check, as her voice began to crack, and her expression of anger changed to a whimpering look of maddening depression and sadness.

"Why?"

"What do you want me to say?" coldly said John, brushing Natalia's hand off of his shoulder, "'I'm sorry?' Is that what you want me to say to you? I'm not sorry for what happened in Laos. At least less now than I was back then. Not because I hate you, because I loved you as much as you loved me, and not because I thought you'd be dead weight, because you're anything but. I did it to protect you. From our foes and myself."

"That's your excuse? 'You were protecting me'?"

"Yes. Yes I was. Of course I regretted it at the time. I hated myself for it everyday. It took everything from the others to make sure I didn't try to kill myself at least once everyday for the first year away from you, and no, I'm not over exaggerating. But then we saw all that we saw, and did all that we did over the years, and that's when I realised: you were better off without us in your life, and you were safer out of ours. Out of mine."

"Why? Because I'd just hold you back?"

"Because out of all of us, you had it easier. You got off lighter than the rest of us. You had already seen the outside world, and we hadn't... you still had a soul. A spark of life in your heart, and I couldn't let that be taken from you."

"You were that spark. You were my only reason for living. Do you know how long I waited for you? Do you know how many times I tried to kill myself when I realised you weren't coming for me? How long I was kept in a straight jacket in a mental hospital just so I couldn't claw out my own wrists and bleed to death? While you were running around, doing whatever with Diego, Samuel, and Kyle, I was stuck in Japan taking antidepressants for 3 years, and being thrown from foster family to foster family for 6!"

Natalia was practically screaming at this point, slamming her fists into John's chest, as she cried, while John simply looked at her, as still as a statue, while a look of sadness and solemn concern began to cover his face.

"Now I'm stuck with a dad who tries to bathe with me and beats the ever living shit out of anyone who even comes in a 10 foot radius of me, a mum who's so negligible that she's never home and out getting drunk and letting one person after the other stick their dick in her, and up till now, I've been hounding on a girl who so much as reminds me a bit of you! My life has been an absolute fucking train wreck without you, and now, after 6 and a half years, when we finally see each other again, I am not going to let you leave me and just-"

"Natalia", said John, his face shifting back to neutral, "For Christ's sake, get a hold of yourself.

"I-It's Miharu now."

"Don't care. Listen to me, no matter how much we both tell ourselves it was wrong, what happened in Laos was the right thing to do. And after all of the shit me and the others have been through over the last several years, my point has only been reinforced by all the bad things, people, and decisions that we've seen and made over the course of our travels."

"And what about the others?" asked Nata... 'Miharu', "Would you do the same to them that you did to me? Would you abandon them as well, and make them live the same exact life I have, away from you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I probably would", bluntly stated John.

Miharu was shocked by this. How could he just say that so callously? Were they not close? Was he and the others not like brothers? Was he planning on abandoning them like he did her? Was he planning to make them live out the rest of their lives without him?

The answer seemed to be yes.

"If... you have nothing else to say on this matter", began Miharu as she wiped away her tears, "Another comes to mind: Why are you here? What happened to you that made you come to a place- To a city- Like this?"

John simply looked at her with an expression of regret, and empty eyes, and muttered, "Somalia."

Miharu's eyes widened with fear, and she muttered something in Russian. She then asked him, in a quivering voice, "Sebastian, what... What the hell have you done?"

Suddenly, the door to the locker room burst wide open, almost off of it's hinges, and Miharu and John spun around to see Riley sliding across the floor, and slamming his head against one of the lockers. His FAMAS-G2 rifle ended up spinning across the floor, next to John, who picked it up and placed it on top of the lockers.

"I'm okay", dizzily said Riley, as he tried to get up, "I think."

"No, you're not", said John as he started to walk over to him to help him up, "Does everyone here say that they're fine when they're really not, because you're technically the third person today to tell me-"

Then, almost out of nowhere, a horde of second year students began to pour out of the locker room entrance, and into the locker room, dragging what looked like several teachers along with them. John barely had anytime to pull up Riley, and shove him to the side of the locker to avoid being swallowed by the mob of teenagers, and Miharu ended up climbing on top of one of the rows of lockers to avoid being crushed by them, quickly picking up the mace for protection. Then, as soon as they appeared, they charged out of the locker room and through the exit of the school, rallying in a section of the large courtyard outside, and then scattering over a rather large distance.

"...Um, okay. That's a thing", said John, who was quite surprised at the fact that he wasn't expecting that, "What's that thing then?"

"Is Ryan Reynolds outside or something?" asked Miharu, who was still perched like a cat on top of the lockers, "Or, more logically, has the summoning war gotten out of hand? Again?"

"The latter", said Riley as he began to shake his head, "Though it would be nice if the guy who played Deadpool was outside."

"Ryan Reynolds."

"Mm-hm."

"Would be nice."

"Mm-hm."

Then, a green and grey robot began to charge out of the doorway, but slipped and crashing into the locker next to him, denting it. A green haired boy and a spiky blond hair boy, and a girl with greyish blue hair followed, but accidentally ended up tripping on one another, and doing the same as the robot when they slipped, albeit less dramatically.

{SLAM}

 **"OW!"**

{SLAM}

"OW!"

{SLAM}

"OWWY!"

{SLAM}

"OW!"

"Kyl- I mean Mateuz! Andre! Akihisa! Other lady! You guys okay!" yelled John out loud, in a rare show of concern.

"""Urgh..."""

"Okay that was a dumb question. Obviously. Especially since you just slammed into a locker each, and are piled on one another. (Why did I even ask?)"

Mateuz just lifted his head from the locker, and said, **"Another happy landing, Johnny boy."**

"No it wasn't", muttered the girl, who had now acquired a nose bleed.

 **"Yes it was, Mercy."**

"Stop calling me that."

 **"No. 'Sides, sounds like a nice name. 'Mercy'. I once met a girl called Angel, actually. Nice bod', terrible personality. She just didn't understand me."**

"No one ever does", said Andre, as he picked himself up and dusted himself off, while sporting a few bruises, and his clothes were dirty and creased, "Though I suppose it isn't your fault. She just didn't know you had ADHD."

 **"I'm proud of who I am."**

"Yeah I can tell."

"You have a robot who has ADHD?" asked 'Mercy' with a bewildered look on her face, as well as a bruise on her cheek.

"Cool", said Akihisa, who also had a bruise, but on his chin, "How'd you make a robot with a mental disorder, John?"

"It's best if you don't think about it", replied John.

 **"I don't think about stuff that bores me"** , said Mateuz, who hadn't bothered to move.

"A lot bores you."

 **"Exactly."**

Then, another girl charged out of the doorway, but quickly stopped herself before she fell over, and joined the 'smashing your face in a locker' club. She was then joined by Amy, another girl, and a large crowd of students behind them.

"Yoshiko, are you okay?" frantically asked the girl.

"I just slammed into a locker, Hiromi, and now I'm pretty sure I popped a blood vessel in my nose", replied 'Yoshiko-Not-Mercy', who had gotten up, and wiped the blood from her nose, which now stained her sleeve, "What do you think?"

"Eh, I've had worse", said Akihisa, as he got up.

"This isn't about you, mister moron! Me. This is about me. Don't make this about you."

"Oh, right, sorry."

 **"Hey, there they are!"** yelled Mateuz as he shoved himself between Akihisa and Yoshiko, both of them falling to the ground and face planting onto the floor, while the others looked outside, to the large scattered crowd amassed out in the courtyard.

"Just as planned. After them!" yelled 'Hiromi', as the crowd of students behind her began to charge outside.

 **"HeyJohnheyladythatIdefinitelydon'tknowgottagoluvubye"** , yelled Mateuz as he and Andre got caught up in the excitement, and joined the large crowd that was running outside. Even Riley and Amy were swept up in the adrenaline, and joined in the excitement and chaos of the event.

After a few moments, most of those who had come down to the locker room had charged into the courtyard, and begun battle with the others in the opposite crowd, with the teachers activating what looked like holographic fields, which ended up combining into one giant field of floating numbers and letters, and the students spawning in some sort of miniature holographic combat entities to fight for them.

As Miharu got down from the lockers, grabbing Riley's rifle, and helped Yoshiko up, John helped Akihisa up, and looked at Miharu and said, "What just happened?"

"Life at Fumizuki academy happened, 'John'", said Miharu with obvious disdain, as she hissed John's new name.

"I take it you 2 know each other?" queried Akihisa.

""Don't ask.""

* * *

 _In the then..._

* * *

 _Hiromi hated a lot of things._

 _She hated it when she was caught out during baseball when the catcher caught the ball._

 _She hated it when loud noises interrupted her (The noises outside, for example)._

 _She hated it when people didn't figure out the differences between baseball, rounders, and softball._

 _She hated it when things weren't as organised as they should be (She blamed her OCD)._

 _She definitely hated it when her crushes rejected her (Kubo, she's looking at you)._

 _And she really hated it when a bunch of horny douche bags for boys outside of her class tried to peep on her naked of all things (No need to go into detail on that one)._

 _But right now, she really, really, really, hated the annoying bullshittery of Class B._

 _At the current moment, her entire plan appeared to be botched, and she and her personal guard were cornered in the Class E classroom by several Class B students. Her forces had been scattered and were unorganised (OCD be damned), and she was severely outclassed by even a regular Class B student, never the less Nemoto._

 _Great, she thought to herself, Just great._

 _"Boss! Look out!" called out one of her guard._

 _Hiromi shook herself out of her thoughts, and quickly saw that a Class B student's avatar had burst through their defences, and was charging right at her diminutive avatar. Hiromi just barely had enough time to mentally order her avatar to dodge the incoming slash from the enemy avatar's blade, and hitting it in the head with her avatar's baseball bat. After a few moments, a few other Class E students redirected their avatars, and they all killed the avatar through force of numbers._

 _As Hiromi noticed Ironman carry the Class B student, as well as several other students, off to the remedial classes, she beckoned for one of her lieutenants- A pink haired, fair skinned girl- to come to her, to which she complied._

 _"Mayura", she asked her lieutenant, "Have we received any news?"_

 _"Not really. We haven't heard from Yoshiko since you called her, ma'am-" Mayura Ogawa liked to call her that during ESB wars "-In fact, we don't know much of what is happening outside of this room."_

 _"Please, do explain. In few words, please. The simpler the better."_

 _"Well, we have to assume that we're the last organised E Class force, all our other guys and gals are scattered and barely hanging on, Class C are apparently amassed on the floor below us, and the B Class forces are right on our doorstep."_

 _"Okay. Any good news?"_

 _"Tengoku no kaori is having a sale. Buy a main, and get a dessert free. Till the end of the week."_

 _"Mayura, I know you work at your dad's food stop and all, but could you just not for a second please?_

 _"Not what?"_

 _"Advertise your own business."_

 _"Nope."_

 _"Ugh. You're impossible", said Hiromi as her attention turned back to the enemy about to breach their classroom defences (2 sliding doors and Hiromi's personal guard. Also a bench, a few tables, and Yoshiko's stuffed toy tiger for some reason)._

 _"You love it", smirked Mayura._

 _"No, I don't."_

 _That was a lie. She did love Mayura's snarky tone and whit, but not in a romantic way. More like a big sister to her smaller sibling. Or siblings, if she counted the rest of Class E. They really had grown on her since the start of the year, when they fought their first war, and now she would do anything for them. Granted, the boys in her class did try to peep on her in the changing rooms during that whole peeping incident at the training camp, but they were just being boys seizing an opportunity to settle their own desires to see naked ladies, thanks to there being no good Wi-Fi connection at the camp- Actually, there was no Wi-Fi connection at all, to be honest. How's a girl suppose to watch YouTube without any Wi-Fi?- and they did get their comeuppance in the end, so she did find it easy to forgive them. This war was suppose to be her getting her Class E pseudo siblings the proper equipment that they all deserved, but now it was a losing fight against annoyingly superior numbers, and it seemed that her own cockiness had lead to her plan completely crumbling apart before it even started. Many of her pseudo siblings had been send to the remedial classes for easily avoidable fights, and Hiromi felt each defeat weigh down on her._

 _She looked back at Mayura, and asked, "How many of us are left?"_

 _"In this room, about 10 of us, I'd say. Outside this room, no idea, though I believe that it would be safe to assume that most of us are gone."_

 _"Dammit", muttered Hiromi, before saying out loud "What about Yoshiko?"_

 _"Have you heard anything from her?"_

 _"No."_

 _"Then your question is already answered."_

 _"Sigh, righto, then."_

 _"Try calling her again. See if she picks up", advised Mayura._

 _"Good idea", replied Hiromi as she reached for her phone._

 _Suddenly, the sliding door to the classroom was smashed open, sending bits and pieces across the room, and the poorly constructed barricade at the doors were overcome and quickly dismantled by the horde of Class B students (Yoshiko's toy tiger was torn in half, sending cotton flying. Hiromi would have to hide that from her later on). What was left of the Class E guard gathered around Mayura and Hiromi, ready to make their last stand, while the army of Class B goons surrounded them, ready for the kill. The Class B forces then split themselves down the middle of the group, and between the 2 sides, out walked Nemoto, flanked by 2 of his own guard. Nemoto wore a big, confident smirk on his face, and his body language and posture indicated smugness, and complete confidence in his ability to achieve victory._

 _Nemoto looked at his 2 guards, and confidently said, "Ritsuko, Mayumi, go downstairs and tell dear Yuuka that victory is mine. She had nothing to worry about."_

 _"Yes sir", said a girl with light purple coloured hair, as she and another girl jogged out of the room._

 _"Quite confident that victory will be yours, then?" mockingly asked Hiromi._

 _"Of course", replied Nemoto, looking back at Hiromi and her small group, "You are weak and stupid. This will be but child's play."_

 _Hiromi was angered by the prospect of being called stupid, and glared at Nemoto, "Don't be so overconfident in yourself, Nemoto."_

 _"This isn't overconfidence, simpleton. I've already won. You have few people left that are still fighting, and in case you haven't noticed, I have you surrounded. If anything, you are the one being overconfident."_

 _"Go fuck yourself."_

 _"Is that the best comeback you have? Haha! I was expecting something more grandiose from someone so carelessly confident in herself, but that was just disappointing."_

 _A few Class B students quietly chuckled to themselves, while the majority of them stayed quiet._

 _"Laugh harder", ordered Nemoto, "Or to the remedial classes you go."_

 _All of the Class B students began to fake laugh, not wanting to go to the Ironman's classes._

 _"Better. Now, I think this little fiasco has gone on for long enough. If anything, you fools are merely the starter to the main Class A course. Time to end this. Everyone, kill them."_

 _"Wait, like literally?" asked one female Class B student._

 _"Sigh. No Mayuko. Kill their avatars, not the actual people. We aren't murderers."_

 _"Oh, right."_

 _"Moron", muttered Nemoto under his breath._

 _As the Class B mob began to converge on the Class E remnant, what was left of Hiromi's guard circled around her and Mayura, ready to make their last stand. Hiromi, meanwhile, was beginning to panic, and started to call out to Nemoto frantically, "Wait, Nemoto! Isn't there some kind of agreement we can come to, or deal or something? Like, if I hand myself over, you'll spare the others? Please! Don't send my peers to the remedials so pointlessly!"_

 _"Such care for those who follow you", said Nemoto smugly, "How quaint. How pointless. This care that you have is so pointless, and pathetic. No dice, Nakabayashi. Now, it's time to pay the-"_

 _"BOSS!" called out a Class B student as he ran through the destroyed door and up to Nemoto, "We've got a problem."_

 _"Yeah, we do. You interrupting me", replied Nemoto, obviously not enjoying the fact that he was interrupted by one of his own pawns no less, "What do you want?"_

 _"Class D are on the march, and they're shredding us! They got guys from Class A, that idiot from Class F, and a freakin' robot with them!"_

 _"Wait, what did you say,_ _Jirō_ _? A robot?" asked Nemoto with confusion in his voice._

 _"I ain't making this up, you know!" yelled_ _Jirō in a voice of panic._

 _"Yeah, sure", said Nemoto with a obvious tone of sarcasm. Then again, a lot of companies across the globe have their own domestic robots being sold to the sheep, so it was possible that they had one. And, just an hour ago, a bunch of giant robot spider things were being unloaded into the city, and started to cut down a lot of the forest areas around the city, so there was that as well._

 _Most of the Class B troops had stopped their advance to look back at Kyouji and_ _Jirō talking, while a few of them had tried to take on the hurdle of Class E students by themselves. It didn't end well for them._

 _"Okay, then let's say Class D do have a robot", said Nemoto, who was becoming bored with this conversation, "They're still Class D. How are you losing to them? And how did they find out about the glitch anyway?"_

 _"I don't know. What our guys who first encountered them said was that they discovered it by accident, but they also got guys from Class E, class A, and that moron from Class F backing them up!"_

 _"That probationary idiot...", muttered Nemoto under his breath, "What's their progress?"_

 _"We're dropping like flies out there, sir!"_

 _"Hey, is that a robot!?" yelled a Class B student from outside the room._

 ** _"Okay, this is becoming a running gag!"_** _, yelled an unfamiliar voice, that sounded like a boy was using a voice modifier, **"If I hear one more person call out the fact that I'm a robot, I'm gonna throw this sign at them!"**_

 _"Wait, you have the sign to Class F?" asked a voice that belonged to the probationary idiot, "Where did you get that?"_

 ** _"Oh, this? It fell on my head."_**

 _"Can I have it back after this?"_

 ** _"No. It's mine now. I'm keeping it. Now then, back to the slaughter."_**

 _The sound of clashing and Class B students being sent to the remedials almost immediately put Nemoto on edge, as he yelled out, "Dammit, end them now, you idiots, while we still-"_

 ** _"Knock_ _knock."_**

 _What was left of the door, and the wall surrounding it, violently burst open, smashing into the ground and several Class B students, knocking them down and out for the count, and creating a smoke cloud, that covered everyone nearby in dust and wood chippings. Another part of the doorframe collapsed, and hit a locker, gently leaning on it, while part of the plaster on the ceiling fell off, and onto the floor. Through the dust, a figure stepped through the hole in the wall, and stood in place, shrouded by the cloud of smoke._

 _Soon, the dust settled, and a humanoid, imposing machine could be seen, standing at 6 foot tall, and with a long cylinder like object on each shoulder. It's head was rectangular and insect like, with a singular glowing green eye, and a short fin on each side. It's thin legs were in the form of hind legs, and it's arms were skeletal and sharp, as were it's fingers, and it's main body was grey, with green lights shining across several points on it's body._

 ** _"Room service"_** _, said the robot._

 _"Wow, we've already been here for a day and you've destroyed a door", said a green haired boy in a Spanish accent, who was standing on the opposite side of the destroyed door, "Good job, Mateuz."_

 ** _"Oi, the door was already broken when I made it even more broken"_** _, hastily replied the robot, **"They would've needed to fix it anyway."**_

 _"What the hell!" called out one of the Class B students, "Is that a-"_

 ** _"SIGN_ _ATTACK!"_**

 _The robot then threw a sign that said Class E but with a sticker on it that said F at the Class B student, and it collided with his face, causing his nose to erupt with blood, and falling to the ground unconscious._

 ** _"My finger_ _slipped."_**

 _"And now you've knocked a guy out. Great first impression you've got going there", said the green haired boy._

 _ **"I said my finger slipped!"** yelled back the robot in defence. It then looked around, and asked, **"So, um, are they're any Class E guys in here?"**_

 _"Um, here, I guess", said one of Hiromi's guard, indicating the small group in the corner._

 ** _"So, um, then everyone else here is not Class E? Or something?"_**

 _"Um, yeah, I suppose so."_

 ** _"Good to know"_** _, said the robot. As it said that, a little robot looking avatar appeared from behind the outside wall, ran through the door frame, and jumped up onto the robot, who picked it up in it's left hand, and looked at it, **"Right then, little guy. Do your thing."**_

 _The chibi robot avatar nodded, and jumped down from the robot's hand. It then pulled out a scythe from it's back, with a glowing green blade, and charged forwards. It then quickly and cleanly cut off the head of a Class B student's avatar, killing it immediately. It then swiped with it's scythe, and sliced the necks of several other Class B avatars in a single swoop, leading to them bleeding what looked like rainbow coloured blood, and falling to the ground, dying from blood loss, with it's points somehow making up the blood. The Iron Man then somehow popped out of nowhere, and dragged the students who's avatars had died out of the already damaged room._

 _"Those Who die meet me in the remedial class!" called out the Iron Man, with a demonic look on his face, that, in this school, would probably look completely normal for him. The Class B students being carried away by him weren't too keen on remedials themselves._

 _"NO! I don't wanna!"_

 _"They're cheating! They have a robot! They cheated!"_

 _"How the hell can a robot even use an avatar in the first place?!"_

 _"W-w-what the hell!" called out Nemoto in a panic. He had not prepared for a situation like this, nor had he even predicted it in his planning, "What are you?"_

 ** _"I'm_ _Mateuz"_** _, said the robot, **"Breaking stuff extraordinaire, and John Cena wannabe. Pleasure to meet you."**_

 _"E-everyone, swarm that thing!" called out Nemoto to the rest of the Class B students, who redirected their attention towards 'Mateuz', and began to charge at him, sending a swarm of avatars on the offensive. But then, the entirety of Class D and their current allies also swarmed into the room, leaving the small room extremely crowded, and it's occupants in close quarters combat. Several students on both sides were hit, and some ended up sustaining minor injuries from the fighting, thanks to shoving, and the occasional fist. Mr Hasegawa (Who had only just gotten to the room), the green haired boy, a blind Nigerian boy, the probationary idiot, and a few of the students from Class A tried to deescalate the fighting, but most of them, with the exception of the teacher, just found themselves dragged into the increasing blood lust._

 _"Everyone, fall back!" yelled Nemoto over the chaos, "We'll head downstairs, grab as many teachers as we can on the way, link up with Yuuka's forces, and rethink our strategy, if she's even still down there!"_

 _"Wait!" called out Mr Hasegawa, "You're not allowed to run from an ESB during combat! Those are the-"_

 _He didn't even get to finish his sentence before Nemoto and another Class B student grabbed him and ran out of the room._

 _Most of the Class B forces heard Nemoto's order, and they quickly began to follow him out of the room, with some even grabbing chairs, and throwing them through the windows into the hallway, and charging out. However, a few of them didn't get the message, and they kept on fighting for a very short time, before the Class E and D combined forces took them out._

 _Once the situation had calmed down, Hiromi began to process what had just happened, as she and her guards slumped down onto the floor. In the last 2 minutes, she had been surrounded, then a robot had appeared, then it was pandemonium, and now all of the bad guys were gone, and her classroom was wrecked._

 _What. The fuck. Is going on?_

 _Hiromi looked around, and surveyed the room. The classroom was crowded, yet it was devastated. The tables had been overturned, and a few of them had been broken, while the chairs were completely thrown around the place (This was going to give her a headache just by looking at it all). The window that looked into the classroom was smashed open, and one of the doors was swinging on one of it's hinges, while the other had been completely blown off, as well as part of the wall and ceiling plaster. Pieces of wood, plaster, and a broken locker door spread themselves across the ground, and part of the rug on the floor was torn up. Not only that, but several students from both sides of the battle were lying on the floor, either unconscious, or groaning as they held an injured part of their body. Some of the students from the force that saved Hiromi and her guard started to help up the students who were hurt, laying them in a rough order against the lockers, and seeing how they could help, while the unconscious students were placed in an order on the ground, and covered in their jumpers, acting as makeshift blankets. Several of the students who weren't badly hurt started to tend to the hurt students, acting more like nurses then fellow peers._

 _Hiromi smiled. It was nice to see fellow students helping those who needed it. It was basic human emotion to do so, she guessed._

 _Hiromi then saw Yoshiko, Ayumi, and several other Class E peers barge through the crowd, making sure not to step on any of the unconscious students, and race-walk over to Hiromi and her guards._

 _"Hiromi, are you okay?" worryingly asked Yoshiko, as she and her group of Class E students helped up Hiromi and her guard._

 _"I'm fine, Yoshiko", replied Hiromi, who looked around her Classroom again, "Just really confused."_

 _"You and me both."_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"I said-"_

 _"No, sorry, I heard you. But, why are you confused? Didn't you bring all of these guys with you? And how are Class D even able to help us anyway? The rules say that only 2 classes are allowed to fight in a Summoning Test War."_

 _"Yeah, I thought so too. But there seems to be some sort of glitch in the system-"_

 _"Again?"_

 _"Yep, again."_

 _"... so, the glitch? Does it let other classes fight in wars?"_

 _"Oh, yeah that seems to be the case. We also got Yoshi (Or Yoshii, or whatever) from Class F, and some guys and gals from Class A helping us out as well?"_

 _"Really? Why's that?"_

 _"I think they were bored, or something."_

 _"Oh. Okay."_

 _"You seem a little disappointed with that answer."_

 _"No... yeah, a little."_

 _"Why's that?"_

 _"Well, I had hoped for a second that they were here to help us out for, I dunno, good will, rather than boredom relief."_

 _"Well, they seem to be into the idea of helping us out now", said Yoshiko as she looked behind her, seeing Mateuz helping to cover one of the unconscious students in a makeshift blanket, "Though I will admit, I do have my suspicions about the new guys."_

 _"Where the hell did you even get a robot to begin with?" asked Hiromi, who was slowly calming down about the whole situation._

 _"I didn't. Those guys from Class A had it. It was at the corridor intersection when I got there, along with everyone else."_

 _"Everyone that you gathered was already at the corridor to begin with?"_

 _"Um, yeah. I think so."_

 _"You don't think-"_

 _"The thought crossed my mind."_

 _"So can we trust them?"_

 _"I don't know."_

 _"Neither do I."_

 _"Then why did you ask?"_

 _"I wanted your opinion."_

 _"Well, to be honest, under the circumstances, I don't think we have a choice."_

 _"Hm?"_

 _"In trusting them."_

 _"Oh, well, I see your point."_

 _Hiromi and Yoshiko watched as the Student that Mateuz and a female Class D student were looking after began to stir, and wake up._

 _"Err", muttered the student, as his eyes fluttered open, "Where am I?"_

 _"Hey, look at me", softly said the Class D girl, "What's your name?"_

 _"Um, Chōnan._ _Chōnan Nonaka, but everyone just calls me Chounan."_

 _"I'm Anzu Ooshima. You're in Class E, Chounan. Do you remember how you got here?"_

 _"Quick question before that: am I hallucinating, or is there a robot right above me?"_

 ** _"Well, I did just throw a sign at your face_** ** _,_ _Chōnan my friend"_** _, said Mateuz, **"So you might."**_

 _"He's real, Chounan. Now, do you remember how you got into this room?"_

 _"Um, yeah. I was fighting in a Summoning test war, and, er, we had Class E cornered, then a robot threw a sign at my face", said 'Chounan' as he pointed at Mateuz, "That robot, specifically speaking."_

 _Anzu looked at Mateuz, "Was throwing a sign at someone really necessary?"_

 ** _"Hey, I did say that the next person to call out the fact that I'm a robot gets a sign thrown at them, so in reality, he brought this nose bleed suffering on himself."_**

 _Anzu just sighed, and looked back down at Chounan, "Right then, Chounan, just sit tight. We're currently waiting on someone to get the plasters and stuff from the infirmary."_

 _"Don't think I have a choice in the matter, but alright", muttered Chounan._

 _Mateuz looked away from Chounan, and at Anzu, **"You would make a great doctor in the future, can I just say? Like Derek Thompson's character from**_ _ **CASUAL+Y levels of good."**_

 _"Oh, well, I'm training to be a nurse", said Anzu, "And I'm studying in biology and physical health as well, so thanks. That's nice."_

 ** _"No_ _need."_**

 _"What?"_

 ** _"No need to say thanks. I just say what I see."_**

 _"Oh, well then... that's good. I think-"_

 _"'Those who die meet me in the remedial class!"_

 _All the students turned to the point of origin of the noise to see the Ironman, picking up students by their legs, swinging them over his shoulders, and began to carry them off. Most of the students there (Particularly the most experienced of them) seemed to accept this, and decided to go back to their own business. However, Hiromi noted that Mateuz looked confused (If a robot could even look confused), some boy in a hoodie and sunglasses was looking around, unsure of what was happening, and the green haired Spanish sounding boy also looked confused, and a little pissed. Hiromi was then slightly startled when the green haired boy walked up to the Ironman, and stopped himself right in front of him._

 _'This guy is ballsy, I'll give him that', thought Hiromi, 'Ballsy or stupid.'_

 _"Um, excuse me", asked the boy, with a tone of slight concern in his voice, "But mightn't I ask what you are doing with these guys, girls, or whatever they identify as in your arms?"_

 _...He wasn't even fazed by the fact that this guy is literally picking up students by the dozens, not to mention carrying them off to remedials without breaking a single sweat._

 _Huh._

 _"These students' avatars died, so I'm taking them to remedial classes", replied the Ironman, "Where they will replenish their scores, and study like they've never studied before!"_

 _"Well, can they not do that later?" asked the boy, "I mean, these people were just thrown around like pincushions in a close quarters battle to the not so literal death, and they're hurt to boot, so, if you could put them down, and let them sort themselves out, that'd be great, Mr... something."_

 _"_ _Nishimura Sōichi."_

 _"Right then, Mr_ _Sōichi. Thanks. So, you can, you know, put them down now-"_

 _"No."_

 _"What?"_

 _"No."_

 _"What do you mean 'no'?" queried the boy, "_ _Mr_ _Sōichi, those students in your arms were, and are still, hurt. They need to go to a doctors first before you try to teach them anything, assuming that you are a teacher here."_

 _"I am, and besides, the health of the students is the responsibility of the students themselves, not the school's."_

 _"The hell's that meant to mean?"_

 _"It means, that the health of the students, both physically and mentally, is not the fault, or responsibility of the school's, or the teachers. All the students hear are to attend lessons at all times, regardless of health. They have to put learning first before anything else, and if they're sick, it's their problem, not the school's."_

 _"What? Are you... What? Are you seriously saying that this school does not help students with health problems, and forces them to attend lessons, disregarding the physical, and possibly mental, health of the students, and say that it is the fault of the students themselves for not receiving any help on the matter?"_

 _"They should've gotten the help themselves."_

 _"That doesn't give this place and it's faculty an excuse to just disregard the health of it's members!"_

 _By now, everyone had turned to the argument that the Ironman and the green haired Spanish boy were currently having. Hiromi herself was amazed, and amused, that someone could go this long against the Ironman, and not crack under the pressure, let alone stand up to him for a second, and it seemed that everyone else had the same reaction, and thoughts._

 _"It is the job of the student's to stay fit, not the teachers. If anything, you should be yelling at-"_

 _"Oh, don't start off with some bullshit excuse. At this point, you sound like a broken record stuck on-"_

 _"Excuse me! I am TALKING!"_

 _"And I'm. Not. Listening", coldly, calmly, and menacingly said the boy. This tone set the Ironman on edge, and he instinctively took a step back._

 _Everyone was shocked by what had just transpired. This new boy had not only stood up to the Ironman himself, but made him flinch. Hiromi was now more amazed than amused. The new boy was, and still looked, completely unfazed by the Ironman, who was also looking at him in bewilderment. It must've been a while since someone stood up to him, and made him even flinch._

 _"Step. Aside", warned the Ironman, "Or I'll-"_

 _"What? You'll hit me? Shyeah right. Teachers aren't allowed to hit students. It's a spoken and unspoken law. If you hit me, then that gives me the right to sue, and if I sue, then the cops and inspectors will come down on this school like vultures to a carcass. And once they start poking around, they'll see all of the faults in this pitiful excuse of a school, and kaboom, this place shut's down, and you're out of a job", Hiromi decided not to tell the boy that it wasn't as easy to sue people in Japan as it was in many other countries. In Japan, teachers had a tendency to be seen as in the right in any situation, so that made suing them, and wining, a lot more difficult._

 _"The local council is in the school's pockets. We practically own most of the inspectors."_

 _"Most, yeah. But not all", said the boy, as his lips curled to a smirk, "So, you wanna keep a job? Put the people in your arms down. Gently. Now. You can do whatever you want with them tomorrow, when they're better."_

 _The Ironman and the boy stared each other down, theirs eyes glued to each other, staring into each others souls._

 _They stared._

 _And stared._

 _And stared._

 _And stared._

 _And stared._

 _To everyone's further shock, it was the Ironman who caved in, and gave up. He gently put the students down, and practically stomped out of the room, through the door frame, with the door on one hinge. Looking back at the green haired boy, he said, "I'm not going to forget this. I'll-"_

 _"Do absolutely nothing if you like getting paid. See ya later, mister Hulk Hogan wannabe", said the boy, closing the almost broken door. As the Ironman left, the boy muttered under his breath, "pequeña perra…"_ , _he then noticed everyone looking at him, with most of them with their mouths gapping open,_ _"Que?"_

 _There was a fair few... mixed reactions, to say._

 _Yoshiko, the probationary idiot, 2 girls from Class A or D, Hiraga, and multiple other students started to squeal in excitement, and crowd around the green haired boy, amazed at what he just did. Many other students started to talk amongst themselves, theorising about how he could effortlessly destroy Ironman through just words. The rest of the able bodied students either went back to tending to their injured peers, especially those who the Ironman had picked up, or just backed themselves to the walls, slightly scared of the green haired Spanish boy who'd just made the Ironman himself back down. Hiromi herself was pretty nervous, yet somewhat intrigued of the green haired boy. A natural curiosity of him, mixed with an instinctive fear of those who would challenged the alpha males of a pack, and win. Hiromi unconsciously decided to approach the small crowd that had formed, and her legs carried towards the commotion._

 _"How the hell did you do that, Andre?!" yelled out the probationary idiot, who seemed to be gently bouncing up and down in giddy excitement._

 _"Do what?" asked 'Andre'._

 _"Demolish the Ironman with just frickin' words!"_

 _"Oh, that? Er, I just said what was on my mind, and he was being a bit of a ass, and started spewing bullshit, so I reacted appropriately to that. Also, he was literally carrying a bunch of hurt teenagers in his arms, so I figured that I should, well, yeah. Stop him from walking off with them."_

 _"Speaking of which, how were you so calm about that? Him literally carrying teenagers in his arms effortlessly. I mean, not a lot of people can do that", commented Yoshiko._

 _"You'd be surprised", said Andre, though his tone and expressions made it look like he really didn't want to be talking to her, "Right then Yoshiko, what do we do now?"_

 _Are they already on a first name basis already? wondered Hiromi, as she stood next to the crowd, Well, Yoshiko always was more lenient on the naming conventions, anyway, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised_

 _"Ah, well, technically, I'm not in charge of Class E. That would be Hiromi right there", replied Yoshiko as she glanced at Hiromi next to the crowd, and pointed at her._

 _Andre glanced at Hiromi, and casually walked over to her, making the Class E representative nervous as to what he was going to say._

 _"It is Hiromi, right?" asked Andre, and a calm, yet somewhat reserved, and withdrawn tone. Hiromi noted that his body language and tone was that of distance and distrust, and seemed a fair bit cautious and callous of her. She also noticed that he immediately called her by her first name. It was probably because no one's told him her last name, but, well, still..._

 _Just... just still..._

 _"Um going straight to first names, huh?" nervously said Hiromi, trying to act cool instead of nervous._

 _"Hm? Oh, the Japanese naming standards. I forgot about those. I do apologize", said Andre, holding out his gloved right hand, inviting Hiromi in for a handshake, though he seemed to look rather unpleasant about it. Hiromi, overcoming her nervousness, but acting in caution of his tone and body language, took it, and shaking it firmly. She found that the hand felt hard, and tough. Like it was completely solid, and made of steel._

 _"Oh, um, I'm Hiromi Nakabayashi", said Hiromi._

 _"Would you like me to call you by your last name?" he didn't look like he was taking any pleasure out of talking to her._

 _"Oh, no. Hiromi's fine for now. Thanks."_

 _"Right. I'm Andre Prometheus. Pleased to be of your acquaintance."_

 _"Er, is it alright if I call you Andre?"_

 _"Call me whatever you may please."_

 _"Oh, my. Bit of a gentleman, aren't you?" said Hiromi, slightly flustered._

 _"Um, sorry", said Andre in a callous tone of voice, as he removed his hand, and scratched the back of his head, "I don't swing that way. Sorry."_

 _"Oh. Oh. Oh! Aw...", sighed Hiromi, disappointed that another one of her potential love interests went the other way (Someone needs to give this girl a hug)._

 _"Anyways", said Andre, casually brushing off that little exchange, "what should we do now?"_

 _"Hm?"_

 _"As I am told, you are in charge here. Of Class E. You are currently the commander of what looks like the remnants of a fighting force. Myself and the others were just reinforcements. What do we do now?"_

 _Hiromi broke out of her funk, and looked around the ruined classroom for a few moments. From what she could tell, only a quarter of her Class E peers remained combat ready, with a few others still on the floor, being attended to by several other students. But most of Class D, and the few elements of Class A, not to mention the probationary idiot, looked like they were still ready and able to fight in the Summoning War, and with the Mateuz's robot avatar tanking for them, they now had an even greater chance of winning. With the brains of Class A, the brain of what was left of Class E, and the numbers of Class D, Hiromi was certain that they now outclassed Nemoto and his forces now, even if he had joined with Class C (she had heard him say 'Yuuka' twice, so she assumed he meant the Class C representative)._

 _"Do we have to leave anyone hear to watch over these guys?" Asked Hiromi in a firm manner, whilst indicating to the students on the floor._

 _"I can stay with them, Nakabayashi", said Anzu, followed by several other students._

 _"I should probably stay here as well", commented Andre, "Make sure that that muscle bound tough guy wannabe doesn't show up again."_

 _"That will not be required, Andre", said the boy in the hoodie and sunglasses, who Hiromi noted as possibly being blind, with the walking stick and cautious pacing of his feet being the red flags, "I shall stay here instead of you. I am quite useless in a fight like this, but I believe that I will be able to keep the one whom you had a verbal argument with out of this room, until I can be certain that he will not return."_

 _"You kidding me?" asked Hiraga, "You are blind. How can you stop the Ironman from-"_

 ** _"Genji, trust me"_** _, said Mateuz as he joined the small group, **"Jack can be quite, shall we say, persuasive when he needs to be."**_

 _"Well, I'm running out of things to surprise me today, so I'll take your word for it then."_

 _"Right then, with that settled", began Hiromi, as she turned to the rest of the students in the ruined classroom, "Everyone who still wants to fight, listen up! Right now, Nemoto's probably still downstairs, plotting a new strategy with his cronies, and then they'll come back at us with everything they've got. Well, to that I say, hell to the no! Instead of waiting for the fight to come to us, we'll take it to them! We all charge out of this shambles of a room, and force all of Class B, and how many other allies they've gathered up, out of the school building, into the courtyard, and... well, I'll just make it up from there, I guess."_

 _"Eh, it ain't the most well thought out plan", began a female Class D student, "But if I get to punch stuff, then I'm in."_

 _"_ _Ichirō was always a big dumb brute", muttered another Class D student to a Class A peer, "So this suits her well."_

 _"Oh, shut up, Kenta", whispered the Class A student, "We all know that you're a big ol' tsundere for her, so shut up for a sec. I like this plan anyways."_

 _"Shut up. What? Shut up. I'm her frickin' carer in anything but name, not a love interest. So shut up._ _"_

 _"Yep. Big. Ol' Tsundere."_

 _"Oh, shut your mouth."_

 _"So", smirked Hiromi, "Everyone in?"_

 _She got a chorus of replies._

 _"Hell yeah, I'm in."_

 _"I got nothing better to do, so why the hell not?"_

 _"I wanna punch something!"_

 _"(Of course you freakin' do) I'm in, but not because_ _Ichirō here as well."_

 _"Total tsundere, goddam. Oh, and I'm all up for it."_

 _"Welp, Nemoto pretty much left me behind, so now I might want a bit of payback", said a Class B student._

 _"Okay, I'm gonna be be the one to volunteer herself as tribute and ask, how can we trust you?" asked a Class A girl, "Not 3 minutes ago, you were fighting us."_

 _"You're right, you can't trust me, but can we trust you? You are from A Class, after all", replied the Class B student, "Name's Takou Yoshida, by the way."_

 _"Akane Higa, and I'll have you know, that not only I, but all of the Class A guys and gals here are the Renunciates. You know, the good guys."_

 _"Never heard of you."_

 _"Yeah, go figure."_

 _"Okay, inner school politics aside", said Hiromi, as she walked towards one of the doors, (The one only on one hinge), and opened it, revealing the empty hallway outside, "We all good to go?"_

 _"""""YEAH!"""""_

 _"Right in my ear..."_

 _"Welcome to my world", replied Yoshiko._

 _"Right then everyone. Let's go! Let's go!"_

 _All of the students who wished to fight (A good 87% of all of the students in the room) charged through the door, and into the hallway, with Hiromi leading the charge at the front. The few able-bodied students who stayed behind either continued to look after their peers on the floor (Anzu was the one coordinating those efforts), or stood guard (led by Jack), in case anyone should attack them. A few of the students in the charge ended up getting tripped up, and falling over, only to be trampled on by the rest of the horde of their fellow peers, which ended with them limping back to the Class E room._

 _As Hiromi lead the charge, ignorant of those getting hurt or in their way, she felt a feeling of excitement take over her senses, followed by adrenaline, fury, and everything in between. Her brain told her to turn around, return to her classroom, and come up with a proper strategy other than run and gun, like from Cuphead, but her instincts had completely taken over, and all she was thinking about now, was how she was going to make Nemoto pay..._

* * *

 _As another horde of students charged past the entrance to Class F, Minami looked through the sliding doorway, trying to spot if Aki was with them. After a few moments, she could see him in the crowd, somewhere in the middle, as well as one of the twin siblings from Class A, and the robot and Green haired boy from Class A as well. She'd have asked Kouta to help her look for him in the crowd, but he was distracted watching whatever was happening outside. Probably a naked girl or something..._

 _"Is Akihisa with them?" impatiently, and worryingly asked Mizuki. Minami could practically taste the sweetness in her voice, and it sickened her. She didn't let that show, though. It's already kinda awkward between them after the test of courage that the Year 3s set up, so there was no need to make it more so._

 _"I saw that idiot in the crowd", she said, trying to hide the worry in her voice. Those Class A guys were bad news, obviously, so it would be a bad thing if he started to hang out with them, "Along with those freaks from Class A."_

 _"Wait, what have they done to him?" worryingly asked Mizuki, "Did they hurt him? Have they forced him to join them? Are they hurting him now?"_

 _Mizuki's face then changed to one of tranquil fury, as her eyes dulled, and a dark aura surrounded her._

 _"Is he getting... 'friendly'... with them?"_

 _Yeesh, woman. Lay off a bit, will ya?_

 _Though Minami was hardly one to talk, herself. She did act a lot like a clingy jealous girl a lot, over doing it with the whole punishment thing a smudge when it came to... everything, she guessed. Then again, it was all for good reason. If Aki would just stop being such an idiot and notice her for once in his damn... experience here, then she would ease off. But, since that hasn't happened, and he hasn't really learnt from those experiences at all, well, nothing could be done about it, she supposed._

 _Minami then thought back to the strange group that had come into Class F earlier today. She had hidden it from the boy, but she was genuinely worried about Aki, and how he was doing, and a random boy who she disagreed with, slinging him over his shoulder and carrying him off to supposedly- Supposedly\- The infirmary didn't exactly help her nerves. She didn't break her façade, even when the boy- John, she remembered him introducing himself as- Was slumping her Aki over his... shoulder..._

 _'Her Aki'? Seriously? Was she really that clingy?_

 _Scheiße..._

 _She didn't want to seem like the overly clingy girl (Despite the obvious evidence to the contrary). If Mizuki wasn't around, and had just not had a fever on that day of the placement test, she could've broken down Aki's barriers by now, and they could be a couple (If Aki could even understand what she was talking about. His lead covered brain seemed to stop him from understanding the most basic of things). But Mizuki didn't, and she was here, and so Minami had to be clingy, so she wouldn't lose him to the likes of Miss chugszilla over yonder._

 _"They probably are, Himeji", calmly said Yuuji, who was casually laying on his back on the dirty floor, with his arms behind his head, and looking upwards towards the ceiling. Minami could sense the tone in his lax voice. He had found a situation, and was going to manipulate it to give him an advantage in whatever game he was playing._

 _"Probably what?" asked Hideyoshi, who was simultaneously turning down a confession from one of the FFF guys, who was still hurt after their beating from those weirdoes from Class A. Lucky girl, Hideyoshi was, to have guys notice her, yet she still turn them down. Things like that made Minami a tad bit jealous, and when she got jealous, she got... Well, violent, for lack of a better word._

 _"Getting friendly with him", said Yuuji, obviously not caring about the double meaning of what he just said. If anything, he knew, and was also using that to his advantage, "They're probably trying to gain his trust, and make him betray us, for their own purposes."_

 _"Akihisa wouldn't fall for them, would he?" asked Mizuki in a panicking tone, her deadly aura shattering like glass._

 _"Himeji, this is Akihisa, we're talking about. His brain is probably so rotten, that he'll fall for anyone who'd feed him."_

 _Mizuki's dark aura returned, and she started muttering to herself. Minami really didn't want to hear what she was saying. From the looks of it, it involved curses, satanic rituals, something involving Minami's superheart, and damning someone to hell._

 _…'kay._

 _"Or, they're hurting him as we speak", continued Yuuji, as he got up, and brushed himself off, "I mean, they are Class A, after all."_

 _There it was, again. That little accusation. Yuuji had been sprinkling in these little accusations against Class A ever since he returned from his suspension, for the events at the training camp, when he spoke to the whole class, regardless of topic. From the looks of it, he was trying to manipulate the entirety of Class F into thinking that Class A were evil demons, and that they were the reasons for all their problems (Not that they didn't already think that in the first place). This was hardly true, as most of the time, the problems that Class F faced, were the results of their own actions, rather than that of Class A. Yet, most of those in Class F had little common sense, and were naive enough to believe in Yuuji's anti-Class A bull crap. Mizuki was by far the most easy out of all of them to manipulate, Minami figured, as her ditsy mind, and naivety made her extremely susceptible to outside influence. However, this made Yuuji a hypocrite, as he and Shouko, the Class A representative, were a couple as far as Minami could tell, so blaming Class F's problems on Class A was basically Yuuji blaming Shouko for Class F's own screw ups. Minami, Voyeur, Hideyoshi, and surprisingly, even Aki had seen through this, and were quick to point out the faults of Yuuji's arguments to each other, though none of them had ever even talked to him about it._

 _"But, unfortunately, as much as I want to see that Moron suffer, we need him for my plans to succeed", callously said Yuuji, as he sat up, and looked to Minami, "Minami, go find Akihisa, and bring him back here. I'll need to fill him in on my new strategy."_

 _"Oh, right", said Minami, not really comfortable with the idea of going along with Yuuji's plans (Well, she had gone along with them without question before, but now, after all of the faliures and screwups, she wasn't really that keen on following him anymore)._

 _"I'll come with you", said Hideyoshi, who had gotten up, and walked next to Minami, "I need to go by the drama club, anyway."_

 _"Sure", said Minami, hiding the disdain in her voice. She didn't need a constant reminder of the fact that Aki practically worshipped the girl next to her as a god, but she would rather be on friendly terms with her, rather than hostile ones. She suppressed the feeling of anger in her, not wanting her superheart to start glowing, and immediately give off her distain to the situation._

 _"I'll come too!" called out Mizuki, who began to walk over to Minami and Hideyoshi._

 _"Bad idea, Mizuki", said Yuuji, "If you get into a summoning battle, then you'll waste precious points on bringing back that idiot."_

 _"Oh", quietly said Mizuki, sounding somewhat disappointed, "Okay."_

 _Thanks for shooting her down for me, Yuuji, thought Minami to herself, Though that was probably for self serving interests, no doubt._

 _"Oh, and Minami?" began Yuuji._

 _"Yeah, Yuuji?"_

 _"Be careful. Wouldn't want you to end up like those guys."_

 _Minami looked to the opposite end of the classroom, and took note of the battered and beaten FFF. They were still quite injured, and also still feeling humiliated at the fact that all their might was useless against those Class A guys. The few other students- Mostly second wave students- Who weren't part of both the FFF and Minami's circle of friends made sure to steer clear of them, as the FFF seemed extremely volatile at the moment. The fact that the FFF of all people lost to a bunch of loony asses from Class A helped to cement the danger that they were._

 _Without saying a word, Minami left the room, and marched down the hallway, followed by Hideyoshi. At that moment, beyond the loud noise that randomly came and went outside, the only thing running through Minami's mind, was a simple question._

 _Aki, what the hell have you gotten yourself into, now?_

* * *

 _In the now..._

* * *

John looked at the city of Fumizuki when he, Akihisa, Miharu, and Yoshiko walked out of the main entrance, and into the large school courtyard. Beyond the fences and walls that kept his peers in like caged animals on display at a zoo, John could see many tall office buildings and what looked like a shopping complex around the school, and around those, several smaller buildings, like houses and small scale businesses, littered the city outskirts, dwarfed by the taller buildings, apartment blocks, and complexes of the growing city.

In various parts of the city, cranes, construction vehicles, and workers were busy creating new additions to the view of Fumizuki city and Academy, with some buildings almost done, while others were just getting started. John could see that a cluster of office buildings were being redone, and bridges and extensions were being added between them. He then saw a sign that said 'Chimera Industries' on it being lifted by a crane all the way to the top of one of the buildings, and figured that a new company was moving into the city. John then saw that a massive complex was being built, and a banner that said 'ONI Enterprises' was flapping in the wind.

 _2 corporate juggernauts moving into the same city?_ wondered John, _That can only go so well._

John looked towards the entrance of the courtyard, and saw a small forest of trees between the main city and the school, with a few houses in it. He then saw several wood logging vehicles moving through the small forest, cutting down the trees, and placing them into piles, with a Chimera industries road paving machine slowly paving a road through it. John noted that the machine was essentially a downsized Spider Tank, with all it's weapons removed, and a cement mixer and pourer built into it's back. It had a small head, with 4 glowing orange eyes, several mechanical tendrils with saws and clamps attached to them that pulled up tree stumps, had four bulky legs, and was coated in yellow and grey paint. The dumb AI that was controlling the drone seemed to follow a set path, and it's small head darted around, looking for hazards-

...

For a second, John swore that the robot was looking directly at him for a moment.

...

Dumb machine.

John looked around the edge of the city, at the similar small forests surrounding it, and saw similar road paving machines and wood logger machines cutting down trees, and paving new roads and housing sections for the slowly growing city.

"How did we not see all of those giant robots before?" asked Akihisa.

"Good question", replied John.

Their answer came in the form of a cargo helicopter flying over the school, carrying another road paving machine with it. The cargo helicopter then hovered above a location near a group of workmen, and released it's cargo there, with the machine falling to the ground with a firm thud.

"Well, that must've been what all of the loud buzzing was", said Yoshiko, "I'm surprised none of us ever bothered to just look outside to see what was going on."

"Same here", said Akihisa, somewhat disappointed in himself for not doing something so obvious.

"Maybe we should return to the issue at hand."

"You think so?"

"Obviously."

"Yeah, we probably should."

"Hey, quickie question", began John, who turned to face Akihisa, "What's with the floating numbers and letters over there, as well as the tiny little Chibi looking motherfuckers?" Akihisa seemed to wince at the swearword.

John then indicated to the relatively large rectangular holographic fields a little away from them, and the tiny beings that were battling each other.

"Oh, that? Well, the little guys are our avatars, and the large fields are the ESB fields, which only the teachers or someone with an iron bracelet can summon", said Akihisa, who looked like he was speaking from experience when he mentioned the 'iron bracelet', whatever that was, "I don't really know the science behind the system-"

"You don't know a lot of things", commented Yoshiko.

"Whatever. Anyways, from what I've seen and theorised, the system uses magic or something to create a kinda psychic connection to your mind, and then you and the system are linked. After that, all you need to do is say the magic word, and voila, your avatar is spawned, and you can then direct it's movements with your mind, or something. Probably magic, or something."

"Truly, you are the voice of a generation."

"Unless that's a compliment, I object."

"It wasn't."

"Then I object."

Whilst they were talking, John heard a tiny clap of thunder, and looked to see, beyond the hills in the distance, a cluster of giant black clouds moving in, with zaps of lightning flashing in them. Rain was pouring from the black clouds, which John could see was being blown around in the strong gales, as well as trees. John could also feel a soft breeze on his face, though it was ever so gently beginning to intensify.

"We should probably wrap this up", said John, "Because that storm is coming in, and it looks bad."

"Oh, that shouldn't be here for another few hours", said Yoshiko, "So we've got plenty of time."

"That's what they all say", muttered John, "Then it actually hits, and you don't have plenty of time."

Oh, hey, Miharu?" said Akihisa to the orange haired girl, "You okay? You haven't said a word since we got out here."

John looked to his side, and saw Miharu looking down at her feet, her eyes still red, and her hair drooping down. The others didn't notice it, but John saw that Miharu was glaring at him, her eyes fixed on him, hiding quiet rage behind topaz irises (When did she change her eye colour? Must be contacts). Her cheeks were red, and her left hand had curled into a shaking fist, while the other hand clamped around Riley's rifle, it's grip so strong that it started to leave dent marks in the gun.

"I'm fine", quivered Miharu. John saw that Akihisa didn't believe her, and his face shifted to one of concern.

 _Must be a good friend of hers_ , wondered John to himself, _Better than I was, no doubt._

"No, you're really not", replied Akihisa, who put his hand on her shoulder, "Miharu, please, what's-"

"I'm. Fine", stated Miharu angrily, as she looked at Akihisa, and shrugged his hand off. Akihisa looked at Miharu, seeing the emotions on her face, and backed off, not wishing to press the subject any further.

Akihisa then looked at John, and asked, "Did you do something to her?"

"It's... complicated", replied John.

Akihisa simply nodded in understanding, and looked forward, surprising John, as he assumed that, like most people, he would press the matter. Then again, he might try to ask them later, which made sense, so whatever.

"Um, guys?" began Yoshiko, "The battle?"

John had completely forgotten about that, "Oh, right. Let's see how this goes."

The four approached the battle, and John saw that in one of the fields, was Andre and Mateuz, with several other students standing next to them. The small group approached the larger group, and John noticed a female teacher, with long brown hair, and brown eyes, was watching over the fight.

"Who's that?" asked John, indicating the older woman.

"Oh, that's Ms Takeuchi" answered Yoshiko.

"She's quite nice", commented Akihisa, "She once helped me and a few friends of mine out when we were..."

Akihisa stopped himself, and looked at Miharu. She didn't look at him. Not even a glance.

"...Never mind."

John looked at him, with a questioning look on his face, and then looked back to the field. He pushed the question to the back of his head, and approached the battle, walking up behind Mateuz.

"Oi, Mateuz, what's-"

 **"AUGH!"** yelped Mateuz as he jumped and spun around, seeing John standing behind him, **"Oh, it's just you. Christ's sake, please don't do a FNAF ever again."**

"Is that your robot?" asked Ms Takeuchi.

"Yes and no, Ms Take-your-chee, or whatever."

"How and why does it have a summoning being?

"Summoning being?"

"Another name for our avatars", said Yoshiko.

"Oh, okay."

He then turned back to Ms Takeuchi, "Well, why does he, hm?"

"Um, well, I... I have no idea. That's why I was asking you."

"Well, I don't know either."

"Hm..."

"Anyways", continued John as he looked back to Mateuz and Andre, "Where's Jack? And what have I missed?"

 **"Well, Jack's still in the building, looking after a bunch of our peers who got hurt (I'll explain all of that later), and now we're fighting against classes B and C, for some reason, using holographic Chibi people to fight this war with, and believe me, it made sense in context."**

"Well, I'm sure it did", said John as he rolled his eyes.

 **"Anyway, now it's all out war, each side is taking a hit, and people are dropping like sugar high crashing flies. In a bit, both sides will be gone, and our fearless leader over there is just making it up as she goes along"** , said Mateuz as he pointed to a girl near him. John looked at the girl that Mateuz was pointing at, and saw that it was that same girl that Yoshiko had referred to as 'Hiromi'.

 _So, she's currently in charge_ , thought John, _Cool. I think._

This Hiromi girl looked over to John, and seemed taken aback by his appearance, then calmed herself, and redirected her focus to the 'ESB', or whatever. John figured that with a robot in the group, she wouldn't be surprised anymore.

"Hey, Hiromi", yelled a girl, who John remembered seeing back in Class A at the beginning of the day, "We've got too many bad guys in our way, and our guys are scattered around the courtyard!"

"Yeah, I noticed!" yelled back Hiromi.

"Well, what's the plan now?!"

"Hey, I'm not exactly a master strategist! At this point, I'm just winging it!"

"Wow, what a shocker!" sarcastically retorted the Class A girl.

John decided to approach Hiromi, and his legs carried him to next of her. Hiromi was too focused on the battle to notice him for a few seconds, until she glanced behind her, and jumped, not expecting John presence.

"Is there anyway I could be of assistance?" asked John, in a rather polite manner.

"Um, well, er, you got an, um, avatar, or something?" nervously asked Hiromi, who seemed slightly intimidated by the larger boy.

Um, well, I would assume so", replied John, quickly glancing at the avatars of the other students. Some of them had hoodies, some wielded rather obscure weapons, and some looked like copy+paste of each other.

"Oh, well, just summon it in, and help us win this war", said Hiromi, now reaffirming her voice (John was a rather big fan of the little, appeasing qualities of the average person. Confidence was one of them, and this girl definitely had it).

"Right, okay then. Quick question. How do I do that?"

"Really? You don't know?"

"What can you expect? I don't know how this how ESB or whatever works. I can't just ctrl+alt+del this shit!" Hiromi seemed to flinch at this, to which John immediately felt sorry for his little outburst, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted. I get easily agitated. It's one of my many flaws."

"...Oh, um, okay", said Hiromi rather cautiously, not wanting to possibly offend John in any way. John noticed this, and felt a small hollow sadness inside, as he had not wished to create a threatening image of himself to anyone on the first day that he was at this school. But, he supposed that he was just naturally aggressive, thanks to the many years that have come to pass. The experiences of the past had moulded him into a rather aggressive and threatening person, but now, all he wished to do now, was to leave that old life behind, and start anew, leaving behind the things of the past.

Unfortunately, while he may wish to forget the past and all of his mistakes, the past doesn't want to forget him. As much as he hated himself for it, he found it difficult to let go of his past experiences, seemingly unlike his brothers. While they seemed to be able to easily adapt to this new situation, deep down, John couldn't. The past had a way of coming back to bite you in the ass, and now, he was in the same school as his greatest mistake personified.

John looked over to the group that came with him, and saw 2 people approaching them from behind the ESB fields. He recognised them as the ugly ass Yuuko knockoff, and Minami Shimada from Class F, and they seemed to be approaching Akihisa.

"Aki!" called out Minami, "What are you doing here?"

"Minami? Hideyoshi?" began Akihisa, "What are you doing here?"

"I already asked you that."

"Oh, right. Yeah. Well, I'm helping these guys out."

"Class E?" asked the Yuuko ripoff, whom John assumed was the 'Hideyoshi' that Akihisa reffered to.

"And Class A, and Class D, against Class B, and Class C, apparently. So it looks like someone from every class has a dog in this fight."

"Aki, don't be an idiot", stoically said Minami, "Yuuji's already got plans in place. Don't lose your avatar pointlessly in a fight which doesn't affect us one iota."

"Okay, 1, I don't know what that word means, and 2, what makes you think I'm gonna lose? I'll have you know that we, as in me and everyone else, have the advantage!"

"What? You were gonna pull out Striker Sigma V, were you?" Hideyoshi looked at him, with eyes that seemed to be filled with actual curiosity, whilst Minami's were filled with stubborn disbelief.

"What? No. Why would you think that? Of course I wasn't?" retorted Akihisa with a forced smile, and his hands waving in front of him.

"Don't lie to us, Akihisa."

"I'm not lying."

 _He is so lying_ , thought John, _It's written all over his face. What the hell is Striker Sigma V, anyway? Some kinda game changer weapon or something?_

John then looked over to Miharu, and saw that she was approaching the group of 3, her head still dropped down, and her eyes still glaring forward. Her hair had become messy, and her bangs had become loss, and covered her eyes from view. Minami seemed to notice her, and she suddenly became slightly angry and assumed a defensive position, "Miharu, I don't care what you have to say! For god's sake, I don't swing that way, so just-"

Miharu then got in close to Minami, and the maroon haired girl was quickly overcome with fear. Her eyes were still red, yet her topaz coloured irises still stayed the same colour. Her cheeks were red, and tear marks streaked down her face. The orange haired girl sneered with anger at Minami, resulting in the girl taking a step back.

"Are you in this fight, or not?" rasped Miharu, with a tone of anger, and frustration. Her eyes pierced into Minami's, burning into her soul.

"Um, n-n-no. No we're not", sputtered Minami, taking another step back.

Miharu then growled at her, like a wild beast, in a deep pitch that didn't even seem human, scaring everyone around her. John flinched for a second, practically tasting the seething rage within her. She bared her teeth, and her fangs became apparent, sharp, and glistening from the saliva in her mouth. Traces of blood covered her left pair of fangs, indicating that she had bitten the insides of her cheek so hard that it drew blood. She spat the blood mixed spittle out of her mouth, and snarled at Minami, "Then stand back, shut up, or get lost. Preferable the latter."

Minami continued to try and form up a word, seemingly unable to process the level of hostility irradiating off of Miharu, "I... I... Um, No, well, I..."

Miharu just looked towards Akihisa, composing herself, and said, "You still up for a fight?"

"Um, yeah, I guess", replied Akihisa, who was somehow unaffected by the aura of deadliness that Miharu was giving off.

"Good", said Miharu as she pushed past the group, and walked in front of them, bringing her bitter gaze down onto the Class B and C students in front of her.

"Dude, she looks scary!"

"Shut up, Tohru! Don't show weakness!"

"Well excuse me, Isshin, for-"

"Pointing out the obvious? Great contribution to the class you are, Tohru. Real glad you're here."

"Would you to shut up and focus! She's not that-"

"Not now, Shin'no. Can't you see that I'm fearing for my life at the moment?"

John didn't hear what Miharu said next, but he saw her lips move two syllables. As soon as her lips ceased moving, aside from breathing, a glowing circle appeared in front of her, and a spire of holographic fire emerged from the circle. The fire then descended down, and formed the outline of one of the little Chibi avatars that John had seen over the last 5 minutes. The fire then began to further mould itself, taking shape and form, until the fire cooled, and Miharu's avatar could be seen in all of it's might.

At first, it looked like a medieval knight, but the armour was twisted, burnt, and torn. The armour on the arms was missing from the full set, and the armour on the legs was burnt, and broken up. A sword sheath sat on it's back, with a leather strap going across it's front, and what looked like 2 mortar launchers surgically graphed into it's back. A orange cross painted onto a cloth sheet sat on the avatar's front, but it had 3 slashes in it, which tore into the front armour and skin of the avatar, resulting in red patches around the slashes. The helmet was torn and broken, showing the avatar's head, which looked alike to Miharu's, except the ringed pigtails on it's side were undone, and it's hair reached down to her sides, with the bottom of it's hair sparking and flaming. The back of the ruined helmet was more intact, but it had what looked like chains coming down from it, reaching to it's shoulder, acting like dreadlocks. The avatar itself was holding a sharp steel knight's sword, but the hilt was melted and molten, but still in place, and the blade was also molten, but still in place, and also on fire, spitting holographic flames onto the floor. The face of the avatar was intact, and unburnt, but a deep cut ran down it's lower lip, and it's eyes formed into slits, and it's irises were a dull topaz colour. All the while, the entirety of the avatar was steaming, and it's armour glowed yellow with heat.

John pushed his loose bang of hair from his left eye, and looked at the avatar with curiosity, and perhaps a vague understanding.

Was the fire emanating off of Miharu's being a metaphor for her anger?

Possibly.

Was the medieval knightesque armour a symbol of her own image, her warrior side, or possible fanaticism?

Unknown.

Was the torn up and damaged look of the armour also a symbol of her own shattered internal image?

...

John hoped not. He hoped that she didn't have a shattered internal image. He hoped that the whole torn up armour thing was just an aesthetic choice.

Could they customise their avatar thingies?

He'll figure it out later.

John looked to the students besides him who had experience with this whole ranked ESB thing or whatever, unlike him and his brothers, and while the other 2 Prometheans seemed interested and curious of the avatar, their peers meanwhile seemed perplexed by Miharu's avatar, and even frightened.

"What the hell?"

"Wasn't it originally a roman legionnaire or something?"

"Look's absolutely terrifying."

"Look's like something that the devil spawned."

"Can you even change your avatar's look?"

Ah, so apparently avatar customisation is not a thing.

John looked back to Hiromi, whom was herself gazing with curiosity and slight fear at Miharu's avatar, "So, um, asking again, since I didn't get an answer last time, how do I spawn in an avatar thingy?"

Hiromi broke out of her daze and looked at him, "Oh, um well, just say 'summon' in an ESB field, when your class is fighting in a war, and it'll pop up on it's own. Voice recognition software, or something, I guess."

"Um, okay then", said John, as he took a hesitant step forward, "Er, Summon? I suppose."

A large glowing blue circle appeared in front of John, and began to glitch out in front of him. Something looked like it was trying to punch through the glowing circle, and was winning. The circle then changed from blue to red, and shattered, fading out, leaving a floating glowing red shard.

"...Um, is that normal, or-"

Suddenly, the shard exploded into a fire of red light and flaming energy, causing everyone nearby to jump in surprise. The red fire expanded over the radius of the original circle, shading everything near it in a blood red light. From the fire, a small bulky, clawed metal hand emerged from the fire, digging into the ground. Attached to the hand, was a larger hook like claw, with a blood red glowing blade attached to it. The claw like hand began to drag itself out of the red fire, revealing an arm, then a shoulder, then a head, then a body, then another arm, then a pair of legs, until the hand was now part of a set of limbs for a small figure. Then, the red fire extinguished itself, and the figure stood upright.

It was tall, for avatar standards. While regular summoned beings seemed as tall as half the lower joint of the average person's waist, this avatar reached all the way to the average person's waist, immediately setting in a role of juggernaut for it's sheer size. It looked like a robot, but, like Miharu's avatar, it was torn up, the armour was scorched, and every part of the machine was jagged and sharp. The entire avatar was proportionate to an average human, unlike regular avatars, which were deformed and disproportionate. The limbs of the avatar were long, like the average human, but the main body of the avatar was bulky, and big, and a rounded metal head sat on the top of the body, with a glowing red visor on the front of it. Beyond the scorch marks that the avatar wore, it looked like it once wore grey painted armour, with red and black markings, but the armour was now burnt up, and damaged, and there were several tear marks in the armour, with cuts, dents, and scratches embedded into the armour plates, and the edges of those plates were torn, stretched, jagged, and sharp. On the right arm of the avatar, the hook like claw had shifted from the hand, and merged with a chunk of machinery sitting on the arm, shifting to form some sort of deconstructed saw machine, and on the left arm, sat some form of minigun, connected by an ammo clip to a large circular like object attached to the back of the avatar's left shoulder. The minigun itself was built into a metal shield frame, with the parts between the frame glowing red, like some type of energy shield. In the right hand of the avatar, the juggernaut held a futuristic looking hammer, with about 8 sides, 4 of them had built in black circles with glowing red outlines, and the other 4 sides had steel grey blades built into it, with red lightning like energy sparking off of the blades.

What was particular unnerving about the avatar was the fact that some parts of the avatar looked strangely organic. Through the cuts and open holes of the avatar's armour plates, glowing red, pulsating blisters could be seen, with some of them dripping out, creating glowing red, pulsating bulges, beating like a heart, and leaking red blood onto the armour plates across it's body, staining the black and orange burnt armour red. One of the bulges grew on the neck of the avatar, while another grew on the right shoulder. Several vein like glowing red wires covered the body, acting like veins or arteries for the avatar. On the head of the avatar, a grey slit went through the bottom of the front of the head below the visor, and blood slowly and gently trickled down the slit of the head.

The robotic creature for an avatar then looked at it's opponents, and snarled at them, releasing a robotic growl, and the two sides of the front of the head blow the mask splitting open, revealing a burnt metal jaw underneath, with razor sharp teeth, and a jagged and sharp surface, all the while, the avatar was spitting and drooling blood onto it's chin, and onto the ground, as if it was signalling blood lust.

John was, once again, curious. Was it normal for an avatar to be and look like this? Could anyone's avatar look and behave like this? Akihisa did say that something about a 'psychic connection between an avatar and it's user, so maybe the being in front of him was a visual representation of his subconscious, or something like that. John look towards his fellow peers, and they seemed perplexed even more so by his avatar's form than Miharu's, and even fearful.

"Okay, what the actual fuck?"

"What the hell is that thing?"

"I wanna punch it!"

"Of course you do, Ichirō."

"Is it drooling blood or something?"

"Gross..."

"Disgusting."

"I didn't know avatars could be that big."

"I don't think they can."

"Why's it look like that?"

"No idea."

"That thing looks terrifying."

"So true, man. So true."

"Infierno maldita..."

 **"Cool."**

"Oi, look at that thing's score!"

"6,500- What, No! No- That is a ridiculous number!"

Hm.

It would appear that they were as curious of his summoned being as he was it as well.

He was expecting a bit more. He didn't know, like... He didn't know.

John looked back to Akihisa, with a puzzled look, "Okay, so how do I use this thing?"

"..."

Akihisa was staring at John's avatar, transfixed to it. But, that was not what John found creepy about it. What he found creepy, was the fact that Akihisa didn't wear a face of fear, or bewilderment, or anything like that. He looked as if he had entered a state of contentment, or remembrance. As if he were a small child, trying to remember something that he lost before. John could practically see the mental strain on his face as he gazed at the avatar, the wheels and cogs in his head turning and turning, each time coming to a full stop, unable to find that missing memory lurking in the hidden corners of his mind.

"... Hey, Akihisa?"

"Hm?" Akihisa broke out of his gaze, and looked at John.

"How do I use this thing?"

"Oh, well, You just think of what you want it to do, and it'll do it. I think."

"You think?"

"I think."

"...Well, alright then."

John looked at the avatar, and noticed the Warhammer that his brute of a summoned being was holding. Having never used the system before, John formed a thought in his head, and that thought shifted into a command.

 _Avatar. Lift hammer up, and slam it to the ground._

And then...

Everything froze.

John's mind began moving at hyper speed. A nanosecond became a minute, and everything became still and grey around him.

John felt something in the back of his head. Something foreign, and unknown. Whatever it was, it was massaging his mind, trying to rearrange certain parts of his mind, and implant something into his brain.

John knew what this was: Mental Manipulation. It had happened to him once. It won't happen again.

John manifested himself in his mind, and saw the visual representation of his mind. Sometimes, he would come here, in times of crisis, to think, and contemplate. He didn't really know how he could do this. How he could just manifest himself in his subconscious, or whatever. He just... he just could.

John looked around. His mind was essentially a massive dark room, with a white and blue beating light floating right in the middle of it, connected to several glowing red nerve like cables, continuously sending impulses to the centre, keeping him informed about everything around him. Around John, he saw the memories of the past, and all that he had done. Most of them, he wasn't proud of, but felt that they were necessary.

John then saw what was messing with his mind, a humanoid figure of 0s and 1s, with a glowing orange chest, and a pair of glowing blue eyes, implanting several new cables into the centre, and pushing aside the originals.

John floated to the centre, and approached the computerised figure, _Excuse me?_

The figure ignored him.

 _Hello?_

Again, the figure ignored him.

 _Oi!_ , yelled John as he kicked the figure in the place where the sun don't shine.

The figure didn't flinch, or feel pain. But it finally noticed him, and turned to face him. John couldn't see it, but he could feel that the figure was surprised to see him.

OH, HELLO.

John heard a chipper female voice ring through his head. For each syllable spoken, the glowing chest of the figure flickered brighter, and it's eyes narrowed.

 _Um, 'K, what are you?_

I AM THE NEURO INTELLIGENCE TRANSISTOR REGISTRY OPTICAL A.I.

 _...Wat._

I AM THE NEURO INTELLIGENCE TRANSISTOR REGISTRY OPTICAL A.I.

 _I'm pretty sure that most of those words don't actually have any shared meaning with each other._

CORRECT. MY CREATORS ONLY MADE THOSE WORDS MY DESIGNATION AS TO MAKE ME SOUND TECHNICAL AND COMPLICATED.

 _Are you technical and complicated?_

YES, BUT MY CREATORS COULD NOT FIND THE RIGHT WORDS TO USE.

 _Well, that... happens to the best of us, I guess._

CORRECT.

The figure with the really complicated sounding name then went back to what it was doing, but John then floated up, and got in front of it's face.

 _What are you doing?_

INSTALLING THE FUMIZUKI GAKUEN SHOUKANJUU SUMMONING SYSTEM MENTAL LINK INTO YOUR MIND.

 _Well, let me do it._

I'M SORRY?

 _I don't want some computer or whatever mucking about with my head. I'll do it myself. So vamoose._

The figure seemed hesitant, but it slowly backed off, and John took it's place, removing the cables that the figure had placed in, and began to examine them.

 _Avatar limits. Seems fair. Probationary student activation physics. Sounds fun. Special abilities. Yes please. Surveillance code. Yeah, no. Thought change. Rather not. Remote access. Na. Combination protocol. Oh, a piece of candy. Impose realistic body physics. Wassat do oh my god why?_

After sorting through the cables, he was then left with few of the cables, and after realigning all of the shunted parts of his mind that the figure had moved around, he examined them a bit more, and gently placed them into his mind.

I WAS... UNAWARE THAT HUMANS COULD INTERACT WITH COMPUTERISED PROGRAMS.

 _Neither was I, but I suppose I'm an exception._

I WAS ALSO UNAWARE THAT HUMANS COULD INTERACT WITH THEIR OWN MINDSCAPES IN THE WAY THAT YOU DO.

 _Again, exception._

SO NOT ALL HUMANS HAVE ACHIEVED THIS LEVEL OF SERENITY?

 _Just me. And it's not serenity. I've just had a lot of time to think over the years. This place is kinda like my... safe room._

AH, I SEE. DO ALL HUMANS HAVE

 _Exception._

OH. WELL, I AM YOUNG, SO I WILL LEARN.

 _Really? How old are you?_

3 DAYS, 2 HOURS, 42 MINUTES, AND 33 SECONDS. I WAS JUST INSTALLED INTO THE SYSTEM AS OF TODAY.

 _Oh. So, you wish to learn._

YES.

 _Okay, I can see you going Matrix on everyone, so how about you don't learn too much. Ignorance is bliss, in some cases._

REALLY?

 _Really. So, you can scamper off now._

OH, WELL, ALRIGHT THEN.

The figure began to fade out, but John quickly looked back at it.

 _Nitro._

PARDON?

 _Your name. It can be an anagram. N-I-T-R-O. Nitro. That can be your name. Neuro Intelligence something something something is to long to remember anyway._

N.I.T.R.O. NITRO... I LIKE IT. THANK YOU FOR THE NAME.

 _Don't mention it._

The figure- Nitro- then faded out, and John looked at the new cables in his mindscape.

 _I just had a talk to a computer... Eh. Not the weirdest thing I've ever done. Welp, time I was leaving._

John then refocused himself, and time began to move again. Slowly it moved, but then it quickened, and in a split second, John was back in his physical body, in real time. He gently shook his head, and rubbed his eyes, realigning himself with reality.

"Um, hey", began Akihisa, "Are you okay?"

"Yep. 'M fine", said John, who then pointed to his own head, "Just had to sort something out up here, that's all."

"Er, right", said Akihisa, who seemed a bit weirded out by the gesture that John made.

"Well then, back to it."

John looked down at his avatar, and gazed upon it with a curious look.

"Avatar?" he said out loud.

The avatar looked at him in response, and tilted it's head to the left, as if expecting an answer. John just smirked.

"Smash."

The avatar then nodded in agreement, and turned back to the hostile avatars. It then took a clumsy step forward, and stumbled a bit.

"Okay, this is gonna need a bit more then just a command."

"Then let's consider this a test run", said Hiromi, who smirked at the behemoth of an avatar stumbling around clumsily.

"Yeah, like a tutorial in a video game", commented Akihisa, "Or when a training montage in a cliché sports movie."

"Yeah, I can roll with that", said John as he concentrated, using his mind and the psychic connection between him and the avatar to command it's every move.

"Well then, time to summon my avatar", said Akihisa with a face of confidence.

"And how will that be useful?" asked Hiromi, "Other than just dying immediately."

"Do you happen to doubt me, Nakabayashi?"

"Well, yes, since last time we fought against each other, your avatar fell over and lost points from fall damage, and the fact that you are infamous in this school for, well, obvious reasons."

"Okay, points for that-"

"That's not something you should be saying."

"-Yes, but, little do they know, that I have a secret weapon", proudly stated Akihisa, as he looked to the teacher, "Hey miss, what's the subject we're fighting in?"

"Oh, um, all subjects combine", replied Ms. Takeuchi, "That's, um, the only thing I can seem to bring up, I'm afraid."

"Ha, no matter."

"So, this secret weapon of yours", continued Hiromi, "What is it?"

"Oh boy, this is gonna be embarrising", said the girl from Class A, with an honest look on her face.

"Oh don't you worry, you two, for my secret weapon is so amazingly awesome, that I only just figured it out yesterday! I'm (Drum roll please)... AMBIDEXTRIK!"

"Ambidextrous?"

"That too!"

"""""...Wat."""""

"SUMMON!"

A blue circle then appeared in front of Akihisa, and his avatar quickly popped up, being a regular Chibi version of him, a pattern shared with most avatars and their masters. His avatar wore a modified Fumizuki academy jumper, with the front held together by a button that said F, a red shirt underneath, and a pair of black trousers. It wielded a bokken, and had a tail attached to it, for some reason. And then... there was his score...

156 points.

...

...

...

...Ok.

"156", simply stated Yoshiko, rather bluntly to be honest, "Yeah, you're an idiot."

"Please don't say that so bluntly!" yelled Akihisa as he cried rather comical tears (How the hell is he even able to do that?).

"It's a lot more than I was expecting", said Hiromi, "So good job with that."

"Your approval fills me with shame."

"What the hell were you writing on the damn papers, anyway?" asked Andre, "'Cause I saw that score, and I was like 'Damn, dude! You's dumb'."

"Um, well, one of the questions asked me what is the coldest planet in our solar system, and I nailed it with 'Hoth'.

"""""..."""""

"And then another question asked 'Where is the X thingy-"

"X intercept or value", said the girl from Class A.

"-X intercept in Y=MX+B ?', and I put a circle around the X."

"""""..."""""

"Then in another question, it asked me what a Chlorophyll was, and I got it right with that stuff that you put in handkerchiefs when you wanna knock someone out."

"""""..."""""

"And then-"

"Okay, we get it. You're an idiot", said Yoshiko.

 **"Well"** , began Mateuz, **"This is going to be fun."**

"Holy crap I forgot you were there", said the Class A girl.

"So, can you actually do anything in a battle?" asked Andre.

"Well, I'm a probationary student", replied Akihisa.

"¿Qué?"

"What?"

"What?"

"What does qe mean?"

"'Qué'?"

"Yeah that."

"It means what in Spanish."

"Oh."

"So, what's a probationary student?"

"Oh, well, because my grades are, well, quite low, as well as other shenanigans, I was given the title of probationary student, or punishment inspector, if you will. Now, what this does is-"

"EXCUSE ME!"

Everyone turned forward, seeing the Class B and C students on the opposite end of the ESB field. To be honest, everyone had forgotten that they were there.

"What are you doing?" asked a girl with purple hair and golden brown eyes.

"We're talking", replied Akihisa, with a dumb smile on his face.

"No, we're in the middle of a war", shouted the girl.

 **"Oh blimey, we are, aren't we? I'd completely forgotten about that"** , muttered Mateuz.

"We've been waiting to kick this off again!" said a boy with blue eyes and greenish dark blue hair.

"If we were distracted, and our avatars were spawned, then why didn't you guys just kill them while we were talking?" retorted Andre.

"Well, that... is a good point", replied the boy, as he turned to another boy to his side, "Why didn't we do that?"

"I- I don't know", said the second boy.

"Well then", began Hiromi with a smirk, "If you really wanna start things off again-"

"Let's Rock'n Roll!" confidently yelled Akihisa.

"For the record, Yoshii, or Yoshi, or whatever, never finish my sentence ever again."

Everyone then sent their avatars charging forward, and most of the students moved forward too, with Andre and John staying back, trying to control their avatars, which were stumbling around rather clumsily, Miharu, who just stood in place, unmoving, as was her avatar, and Minami and Hideyoshi, who were watching the fight. After at least 30 seconds, the entire group had been spread out across the playing field, glaring at their opponents. The joint forces then did battle with the hostile avatars, locking blades and sticks, and swinging and slicing at each other. Mateuz seemed to have complete mental control over his avatar, using it's thruster jets to quickly dodge incoming attacks, and carve and slice apart the hostile avatars. Akihisa's avatar, meanwhile, was also moving quickly, dodging and deflecting incoming attacks, and quickly taking down 3 enemy avatars in the space of 20 seconds. However, his avatar was hit by one of the Class C students in it's right arm, and it ended up losing 17 points in response. After a team effort, the Class B and C avatars had been felled, and the enemy students were left to stand in amazement, as to how quickly their summoned beings went down.

John looked to Akihisa, and saw that his left hand was clutched around his right arm, which was shaking. John then noticed that he was holding his arm in the exact place that his avatar was struck, and was showing signs of being hurt. John went to approach him, but was stopped by Hiromi, who walked up in front of him, "Wow, great job helping us out there. Really glad you're here."

John noted the sarcasm in her voice, and looked to his avatar to see that it had fallen over, and was struggling to get up. Andre's avatar tried to help the behemoth get up, but it was struggling to keep it's own footing.

"Oi, like I said, I don't know how this all works. First time ever using this thing!" retorted John, "They didn't exactly give me a tutorial on how to make your avatar thingy not suck."

"Christ, you and Mr Spanish boy over there are useless", said Hiromi, indicating to Andre, who was still struggling to control his own avatar, "At least your robot... person... whatever, can use it's avatar, and it's pretty good at it, can I just say?"

"He, not it, and I guess I can see where you're coming from", replied John, as he looked over to Mateuz, who had his avatar standing in his open hand, and was patting it on the head, "Seems like he's taken a real shining to his."

"I don't even know how he can summon an avatar, let alone take a placement test."

"Oh, well, they didn't let him at first, but he was able to get inside the system, find a placement test sheet, print it off, write on it, and just gave it in. I think nobody at that point questioned it, 'cause, well, other shenanigans had happened, and I don't think they cared anymore at that point."

"Wait, what shenanigans?"

"I'm not legally required to answer that question."

"Hm. Changing the subject, why hasn't the ESB field gone down?"

"Our field?"

"Yeah, our field."

John looked around, and noticed that Hiromi was correct, in that the ESB field hadn't gone down.

"Maybe it can only go down when all of the enemy forces are down?"

"No, it doesn't. In a single field during a Summoning Test War, 2 select groups of individuals have to fight it out, regardless of rank, and once one of those 2 groups is defeated, then the field goes down. Well, we (Not you) just defeated a group of enemy students, in this field, so it should go down. It hasn't. It has yet to do so."

"Well, maybe the system is broken, or there's a glitch or something?"

"Yeah, that seems about right, but this poses a new problem."

"How so?"

"Firstly, 1st problem: Our forces are too evenly matched with theirs. With Class B and C's high scores, and our shear numbers, we've reached a stalemate. 2nd problem: We're way too spread out. Our guys and gals are scattered across multiple ESB fields, and we can't properly reorganise ourselves. New problem: Since it now looks like the ESB fields can't go down, Nemoto will just jump from field to field, and pick us off one by one. Granted, if he does that, he'll technically be running from a fight, which isn't allowed, but Nemoto's never really followed rules of engagement, and the teachers might allow it since the fields are so close to each other."

"So, we won't be able to win this if all of the fields are still up."

"I didn't say that. I just stated facts. Though I'm not exactly confident of our chances."

"Hm, if only there was a way to merge the fields together."

"Yeah, I doubt there is."

John pondered to himself, then remembered his interaction with Nitro, and the cables that he placed into his mind. He remembered that one of them said 'Special abilities', and said, "Hey, Hiromi, do avatars have special abilities, or something?"

"Um, no. I don't think so."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Check."

"What?"

"Check."

"Why?"

"Call it a hunch."

"Okay", said Hiromi, as she focused herself, "Um, summon... special abilities, or something... See, nothi-"

Then, Hiromi's eyes lit up orange, and a small holographic spin wheel appeared in front of her, shining bright orange against her face, seemingly projected from her own eyes. Hiromi was surprised by this, judging by her facial expressions. In fact, John had to quickly catch her, to stop her from falling on her back by accident.

"Oh, um, thanks", said Hiromi, as she blushed slightly, as he held her in his arm, her SA spin wheel still up, and shining into John's face.

"No prob", bluntly replied John, as he pushed her back onto her feet, and dusted her off. John then looked to everyone else in the field, and called to them, "Attention guys and girls, we appear to have special abilities!"

"What?" called out Akihisa, who had stopped holding his arm.

"We have special abilities!"

"Cool."

"Hold up, lemme just see mine", said John, as he mentally commanded for his special abilities, and a glowing red spin wheel appeared in front of him. Curiosity peaked within him, and he poked the spin wheel, and it instantly separated into 4 parts, and sported the name of an ability on each, along with a short description, "Let's see, 'Weaponiser'- links and turns selected ally into weapon, 'Hell's fire'- unleashes a hailstorm of cluster missiles onto enemy opponents, 'Berserk'- increases strength and weapon power, 'Tanks for the Memories'- Clues in the name (Oh well that's blunt)... nothing here about being able to merge ESB fields. Anybody else got one?"

"""""..."""""

"Um, ok, just mentally order for special abilities, and everything will be dandy. If your eyes light up, and a glowing spin wheel appears in front of you, don't panic. Panicking leads to anarchy, and I'm not a fan of that."

Almost everyone there focused themselves for a second, and one by one, an SA spin wheel appeared in front of them, each one a specific colour to them.

"Right then, everyone check if you have something that can merge ESB fields together."

"H-hey, I'm in charge here!" stated Hiromi, "And I say we do what he just said right now!"

"Er, yeah, right. What she said that I said first, I think."

Everyone then began to look over their special abilities, listing them off as they looked at them.

"I got 'Hell's angel'."

"I've got 'Rage, Rage'. Huh, like from that poem."

"Dying of the light?"

"Yep."

 **"Oh, 'Rapid Fire'. Don't know what that does, but it definitely sounds cool."**

"Huh, 'Nature Man'. ¿Qué nombre un poco el infierno es eso?"

"'The sensuous flame'. Lord Alfred Tennyson doing us proud, even from the grave. Seriously though, either these guys read MTMTE, or they really like their SA names derived from poetry."

"'Do not go gentle'. Yeah, Akane, these guys read MTMTE."

"Good to know."

"Hey, I got something", called out Akihisa, "I got an ability called 'Merger'. The description says that since I'm a probationary student, I can use my avatar to merge and mould all of the surrounding ESB fields to my choosing."

 **"Sound OP as fuuuuuck"** , said Mateuz.

"Well, there's at least 2 catches."

 **"There's always a catch. Well, at least one."**

"Well, for it to work, it has to use up all of my points, which means once I use it, then I'm out of the fight."

"So, it's a one hit wonder", commented Yoshiko, "Seems like a necessary loss, if you ask me."

"What's the other catch", said the girl from Class A.

"It'll hurt like hell."

"What?" queried John.

"Well, it says that moulding and merging an ESB field will place a lot of strain on the mind of the probationary student who uses it, and I'm a probationary student, so yeah."

"And by strain on the mind, you mean..." asked Hiromi.

"It says that by strain on the mind, it means 'Mental and physical pain. In the extreme department.' Quote Unquote."

"What in the what now?" said John, with a voice of slight worry.

"Yeah, so if I do this, it might result in, quote, 'mental and physical scarring', unquote. Sounds rough."

"Rough is- no! No! That is ridiculous! Why would you- Why would you make something that can give you mental and physical scarring at the same time! It like a cliché supervillain decided to kill off two birds with one stone, and buy two torture methods for the price of one!"

"Um", began Andre, "You do know that you just used the same figurative speech twice in the same sentence, and just worded them differ-"

"I am aware of that. Seriously, why make it hurt? Why not just make it a holographic display or something, and then do a #lifehack and make the fields merge without causing pain? Does a holographic display even show up? Is that what causes pain, because that'd be kinda weird, since I've still got my SA spin wheel up, and it hasn't hurt a bit."

"Doesn't say anything about a holographic display", replied Akihisa, "So I must have to use my great intelligence to do the deed!"

"Oh my god", muttered Minami from the side lines.

"Same", muttered back Hideyoshi.

"Oh look, more people who I had forgotten were here", said John, mentally deactivating his SA spin wheel, "Right then, to hell with the whole merging the fields together and whatnot. We'll just do this one at a time."

"What?" began Hiromi, "But I thought you wanted to-"

"Yeah, that was before I was informed that it would cause physical pain to a peer, so I feel rather inclined to turn that option down, for the sake of common human decency."

John saw Miharu mutter something while she was still glaring at him, but what it was, again, he was unsure.

"Alright then", said Hiromi, who mentally turned off her SA spin wheel, "On the grounds of moral standards, we'll do this the hard way. We'll clear out each field, one by one, and chase Nemoto round the entire courtyard if we have to."

"We can split ourselves up", said Andre, "And try to encircle your foe. Leave him\her with nowhere left to run."

"Good plan, and Nemoto's a dude by the way (Then again, he does have that crossdressing fetish going on, so...). Alright then, everyone assign themselves to a specific field, and take command of those on our side in those fields. Once we're ready, we rock."

The group started to talk amongst itself, with each person assigning themselves a field, and some of the soon to be field commanders pairing up with each other. Andre with Mateuz. Hiromi with Yoshiko, and the Class A girl with another student, whom she seemed familiar with. John noticed that nobody else had paired up with Akihisa, and went to approach him, until he felt a hand on his shoulder, which tightened it's grip. He turned around, and saw Miharu looking up at him, her cheeks and eye whites still red and raw, "You're with me."

"Well", began John, "I don't-"

"You're. With. Me."

"Well, at least let me bring Akihisa with us."

"... Fine."

"Hm", went John, as he turned to Akihisa, "Oi, mate, wanna partner up with us?"

"Hm?" responded Akihisa as he turned John's way, "Oh, yeah, sure, sounds fun."

"Awesome."

Akihisa then approached John, but then stopped in his tracks when he saw Miharu standing behind him, "Um, should I-"

"No", responded Miharu, who had seemingly started to calm down, "It's fine."

"Oh, um, well, okay then. If you say so."

John could see Akihisa's nervousness, and also concern for the both of them. John didn't want to explain the situation to him, but felt that someday, he'd have to. For his sake, not Akihisa's.

John saw that Minami and Hideyoshi had moved from their positions, and had apparently been moving towards Akihisa's past position, possibly to take him back to his classroom. John waved at Minami, but she glared at him angrily, to which John instinctively put his middle finger up at her (This was apparently suppose to mean siblings in Japanese sign language, but John didn't care. Minami seemed to catch wind of this, looking rather offended, while Hideyoshi seemed a bit perplexed about Minami's reaction).

"Everybody ready?" called out Hiromi, "Fields chosen and all that?"

"""""Ready!"""""

"Heh. Well then, let's go to war."

As soon as she said that, the group separated, and charged towards their self assigned fields. Summoning their avatars, they all informed those now under their command of the Special Abilities feature, and they all got to work, and did battle.

The rest of the war was quite longer than first expected. In fact, it took about 3 hours for the middle and final stage of the war to be fought. From the school entrance to the ponds, to the water fountain, back to the ponds, and finally ending in a final siege for the sports ground. The reason for the long war was simply: at first, with the Special Abilities, the Class E+D+A+F forces were able to beat back the Class B+C forces across the courtyard in a manner of minutes, but the enemy quickly realised how to summon their own special abilities, and the war began a stalemate again. Plus, with no lack of factual command structure, and 2/3s of their tankiest soldiers still figuring out how to use their avatars, the lower class forces were immediately at a disadvantage. However, they slowly began to push back the higher class forces, with each sides numbers slowly dwindling in the process.

When they got to the ponds, they found that several Class B and C students had gotten desperate, and were throwing themselves into the water, holding their breath, and waiting to ambush the groups when they passed. The lower class forces actually had to pull some of their peers out of the water, because they had held their breath for too long, and had passed out in the water. Luckily, no one was heard, but the Prometheans present were deeply disturbed by this level of fanaticism on display.

"Damn...", commented Andre.

 **"Bloody hell, this isn't Game of Thrones"** , said Mateuz as he helped one of the students out of the ponds, **"You don't have to die for a dumb cause, 'cause let's be honest, throwing your life away is stupid."**

"This is a bloody school!" called out John, "Students shouldn't be throwing their own lives away for something as stupid as... well, I haven't been informed of what we're actually fighting for yet, but still."

"Well- _*Cough Cough_ \- we had... every... intention... of not dying... thank you very much...", rasped one of the students between deep breaths.

"Still though..."

"Our peers here can get quite into a summoning test war here", said Hiromi.

"But still, this is a little stupid, don't you think?"

"The people here can be... diverse."

"You mean fucking retarded?"

"It's a matter of how you look at it."

The rest of the long siege was... eventful. It took the lower class forces an hour to finally push through the Class B and C forces, and out of the ponds area, which really wasn't helped by the fact that they had to fend off sneaky attacks from the ponds, and the fact that they had to help resuscitate several of their peers. Eventually, they pushed back the higher class forces back to a water fountain, and thought that they had cleared them all out, when suddenly, multiple Class B and C students ambushed the large convoy of people, throwing avatars, water, and anything they could grab out of sheer desperation.

And Won.

The lower class forces had to run back to the ponds, ducking avatar attacks, bricks, stones, gardening equipment, and multiple other things.

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Akihisa.

 **"They're throwing everything and the kitchen sink at us!"** said Mateuz, **"Literally, I saw a kitchen sink thrown at us!"**

"Geez louis, these guys are getting desperate", called out Yoshiko.

"Okay, I see mister dark and scary's point", commented Hiromi, "These guys are fighting way too fanatically for just a few desks."

"There's gotta be something else at play here", said a girl with dark red hair.

"Good point Mayura. They have to be motivated by something."

"Motivated, or fearful?" John said.

"Good point also. But still, what would make them so afraid that they would physically attack us just to stop us from winning an STW?"

"Well, we've technically captured people from the opposite side", commented Andre, "When this is all over, we can ask them."

"Don't bother", said the girl from Class A, "I already know what's up."

"Well, what then, Akane?" asked Yoshiko.

"There's a contest, that the Principal started. To beat Class A. If a class in our year beats Class A, then not only do they get Class A's room, but they get automatic As for the rest of the semester, and, everyone in the class get recommendations to the local colleges or universities or something."

"WHAT?! Why weren't we told?!"

"Yeah!" deliriously insisted Hiromi, "Why weren't we informed?!"

"... I thought you knew", replied 'Akane'.

"No, we didn't!"

"Actually, Ironman told my class", commented Akihisa.

"Wait, he told you!"

"And the rest of my class, yep. I was actually the first one he told, for some reason."

"He didn't tell my class", said a dark blue haired boy.

"Huh. That's weird."

"No, it isn't", solemnly stated Hiromi, "I just realised it. Class B and C have higher scores than the 3 lower classes, so they have a good chance of beating Class A, but they can't do it alone, so they teamed up."

"So that's why they're fighting so desperately", said 'Mayura', "They don't wanna lose, because if they did, then Class C would be without an ally, meaning that they would have a higher chance of losing, and Class B wouldn't be able to get a chance at scholarships until their 3 months is over."

"Then why tell Class F?" wondered Akihisa out loud, "I mean, we have the lowest scores in the year for crying out loud."

 **"Plus, you may or may not be going through a few... internal issues now"** , said Mateuz.

"What?"

 **"What?"**

* * *

"DOWN WITH THE MONARCHY!" yelled Yuuichirou Nishimura, as many Class F grunts and FFF members gathered around him, chanting his name.

"Idiots", muttered Yuuji under his breath.

* * *

"Yeah, well, you guys have been the only class to properly challenge Class A, and come close to winning", said Hiromi to Akihisa, "I mean, for god's sake, Yoshii, you of all people beat the valedictorian if the year in a kind of 'Are you smarter then an 10 year old' challenge, only you were the 10 year old, and Skouko was the... I don't know what she was!"

"Hey, I am not a 10 year old!" protested Akihisa.

"You do have the brain of one, though", bluntly said Yoshiko.

"Why are you people so invested in hurting my feelings?!"

"Back to my point", continued Hiromi, "Class F, the lowest class in the school, took on Class A, and almost won. The top faculty at this school probably thought that you guys were the most likely to beat Class A than everyone else. Class D and E, on the other hand, are just baggage."

"What? If you guys were baggage, then I'd be able to lug you guys around in an airport."

"Not literally. dude."

"Oh."

"Back to what I was saying, Class D and E have so far made very, very, very little progress in any Summoning Test War. Every battle we've fought, we've lost."

"Oi, watch it", sternly said the dark blue haired boy.

"The top faculty most likely figure us as the proper dead weight of the school, and doesn't bother to let us know of anything, thinkingthat we'll be the ones who'll never get anywhere in life", coldly said Hiromi, as she looked down, and a dark shade covered her eyes.

"You're jumping to conclusions", voiced Akane.

"Maybe, maybe not."

"... We'll show 'em", said Yoshiko.

"Yeah", rasped Hiromi, "We will."

Putting aside their conversation, the convoy pushed forward, completely smashing the enemy forces. During the long war, each person showed off their avatars unique abilities and traits. Mateuz's avatar, for instance, activated it's 'Rapid Fire' Special Ability, and it took out it's AK-12, and showered the enemy avatars in front of it in green bullets, splitting apart and tearing into the enemy avatars, and spraying their rainbow coloured blood across the ground, until they despawned. This ability didn't really help in the overall war itself, but it did help ease off the fire on the main convoy. Akihisa, meanwhile, activated an SA called 'Speedster', which tripled the speed of the already incredible fast avatar, and it zipped around the fields, slashing open the necks of several hostile avatars, killing them, and also cutting another avatar in half, lengthways (The avatar was dead before the Bokken even left it's body). Riley and Amy, meanwhile, acted as bodyguards to Hiromi, Yoshiko, and Mayura, with Riley's avatar dressed up as a paladin, wielding a war sword, and Amy's avatar dressed as a modern day mercenary, wielding a butcher's cleaver. Between them, they had a kill count of 23 avatars in total.

John's avatar, meanwhile, acted like a beast. The waist length tall avatar walked around clumsily, swinging it's hammer around wildly, in an uncoordinated, and generally violent series of attacks against the enemy avatars. John was still having trouble as to how to properly use it, but little by little, he was learning. Still though, he was somehow able to rack up the highest avatar kill count of the entire convoy, being 38 kills in total. What contributed to this, was both the fact that his attacks were random, and hard to predict, because of John's lack of proper knowledge on how to fight with an avatar, so hostile students found it difficult to dodge the unpredictable attacks, and the other contributing factor, was that John tested out his SA known as 'Hell's Fire', which sent off a volley of burning red missiles, that decimated about a dozen Class B+C avatars on impact.

After the convoy decimated the enemy force that pushed them back to the ponds, the rest of the war only lasted for about another 10 minutes. What was left of the main Class B+C forces were too few to significantly hinder or fight the convoy, and they ended up as just a small remnant of about a dozen, scattered across the convoy's path, taking pot shots at the large force. The convoy ended up finding Nemoto and some other girl, who was apparently the Class C representative, along with a few guards, hold up in one of the tool sheds at the back of the school. They ended up chasing them around for 3 minutes until they cornered them in the sports ground.

"Okay, this is getting drawn out", said John to Hiromi as he looked towards the few remaining foes that they faced, "There's about... 1 2 3 4... 10 11 12... a lot. There's a lot of us. And we spent the last 3 minutes chasing down... 1 2 3... 5 guys! And a girl. So 6 people in total. Why didn't we just corner them at the sheds, you know, with our superior numbers?"

"Well, you see", began Hiromi, "That is actually an excellent idea and one I had not thought of at the moment."

"Wha- How? It is literally the most logical idea that you could think of!"

"Oh shut up! I was under a lot of pressure, okay!"

"Hmph, sure."

"Alright then", said Hiromi to Nemoto, "This ends now!"

"Yeah, no kidding", commented the Class C representative.

"Of course", smirked Nemoto, "With you in remedials, and me as the victor!"

"Wha- er, just..."

Hiromi put her hands to her face, and stayed like that for a few seconds, before gesturing to Nemoto, and then to the 100 people that stood behind her.

"Are you retarded?" asked Hiromi, "Like, literally mentally retarded? Go away, look at how many people we have, then how many people you have, and come back here and apologise."

"Oh, I am very aware of that", said Nemoto, "But I am also well aware that all I need to do to win this, is beat you. Specifically you, Nakabayashi. No one else."

"And the final horse crosses the finish line", said Andre, "I swear this guy is moments away from going all insane troll logic on us."

"No, he's trying to draw this out", said Mayura, "The school day's overtime for wars is almost over. He just needs to keep gloating for another few minutes, and the day will end, the war will be suspended till tomorrow, his forces will be able to take replenishment tests, and boom, he'll be able to force a new battle with his army up and at them again."

 **"We can take what tests?"** asked Mateuz.

"Replenishment tests. You're given a time limit, and an unlimited number of questions. Once the time limit ends, then the amount of answers that they got right will amount to their avatar's health."

"Why didn't they just do that to begin with when they died the first time?" asked Andre.

"I think they did", answered one Class E student, "Multiple times."

"We've been kicking their asses so many times that I think they all gave up", continued another student.

 **"Wow. That is... incredibly disappointing."**

"Yeah, I feel you, mister 6 foot robot."

 **"I have a name, you know."**

"Don't care."

 **"No one ever does."**

"Okay, this charade has gone on for long enough", said Hiromi, as she turned to one of the teachers that had been following them around, keeping track of them, "Ms. Takeuchi, if you may?"

"Of course", replied Ms. Takeuchi, "I approve of this battle!"

An ESB field then activated, and encompassed the whole sports ground, Hiromi and Nemoto and all. The large convoy of lower class students surrounded the small group, and began to summon their avatars.

"Well then", began the Class C representative, "We're fucked."

"Not now, Yuuka my dear", replied Nemoto.

"No swearing, young lady", scolded Ms. Takeuchi.

"Hmph. Whatever", muttered 'Yuuka'.

"So, this is where it ends", began Hiromi, "You're cornered, your forces beaten, and about a good, oh, let's say, fourth of the 2nd year are at my beck and call. Oh, how the tables have turned, my friend. How the tables have turned. In fact, I'm beginning to sense a bit of irony in this little situation that we find ourselves in now, don't you think so?"

"I don't even know what irony is", said Akihisa.

"I don't doubt that. Anywho, this is the part of the grand finale, where you get down on your knees, and suck thy non existent-"

"Oh my god, just summon your avatar already, we got about 2 minutes of the day left!" yelled one class E student.

"Oh, shit, right! SUMMON!"

Hiromi's avatar then spawned in from a glowing orange circle, sporting a baseball catcher uniform, a catching glove, and a baseball bat. Nemoto and Yuuka then looked at each other, as their 4 remaining guards circles them.

"Well, oh fearless leader, what do we do now?" asked Yuuka.

"Well, we can't not summon our avatars, since we would be automatically disqualified, so we just need to hold them off until the war is called off for the day, which is about 1 minute and 45 seconds away."

"That's not the most inspiring plan ever."

"I've had a long day."

"As have I."

"Well then, let's get this over with."

The 6 remaining students from the Class B+C alliance yelled, "SUMMON", and once their avatars spawned, they were swarmed.

* * *

 _1 minute and 45 seconds..._

* * *

The entire minute and 3 quarters began a blurred flash. The 6 remaining enemy students fought with a ferocity that was unmatched by most in the large mass of students in the entire war, and would've put the fanatics of the FFF to shame.

* * *

 _1 minute and 30 seconds..._

* * *

Quite a few of the students in the lower class forces ended up getting taken out by friendly fire. No one on the causing them decided to report them.

* * *

 _1 minute and 15 seconds..._

* * *

Hiromi had to push past the suffocating mass of peers in order to actually see what she was doing.

* * *

 _1 minute..._

* * *

Yuuka's avatar got taken out by a stray swing from one of her guards.

* * *

 _45 seconds..._

* * *

Akihisa's avatar somehow got accidently stepped on, and he ended up falling to the ground in pain.

* * *

 _30 seconds..._

* * *

Hiromi caught site of Nemoto. Nemoto caught sight of Hiromi. Their eyes glared at each other.

* * *

 _25 seconds..._

* * *

"Nemoto", called out Hiromi.

* * *

 _20 seconds..._

* * *

"Nakabayashi", replied Nemoto.

* * *

 _15 seconds..._

* * *

Hiromi and Nemoto's avatars clashed with each other, their weapons clashing with each other. Scythes smashed against a single bat.

* * *

 _10..._

* * *

Nemoto's summoned being knocked the bat away from Hiromi's avatar, and cut off it's legs, leaving the avatar to fall down, as it slowly began to bleed out, colouring the ground in a bloody rainbow.

* * *

 _9..._

* * *

Nemoto's avatar smirked in unison to it's master

* * *

 _8..._

* * *

Almost no one else could see what was happening amongst the confusion. Too many bodies and avatars.

* * *

 _7..._

* * *

The avatar posed itself for the kill, bringing one of it's scythes to above it's head.

* * *

 _6..._

* * *

It swung it down.

* * *

 _5..._

* * *

But something stopped it. A large, bulky, metal hand had grabbed Nemoto's avatar, crushing it's small limbs, making it's dual weapons fall to the ground.

* * *

 _4..._

* * *

The hand lifted up, avatar still in hand.

* * *

 _3..._

* * *

The hand began to apply pressure, squeezing the avatar.

* * *

 _2..._

* * *

Nemoto's avatar popped like a grape, spraying rainbow coloured blood everywhere.

* * *

 _1..._

* * *

As soon as Hiromi had properly realised what had happened, John's behemoth of an avatar let the dead Chibi summoned being fall to the floor, and stomped it under it's foot, making sure that it was properly dead.

* * *

 _0..._

* * *

"Winner! Class E and it's allies!" yelled Ms. Takeuchi.

As the ESB fields scattered around the school finally began to shut down and disappear, the lower class forces cheered their victory, while Nemoto stood in place, flabbergasted at his loss, "No... my... scholar... no... but, how..."

"Welp", began Yuuka, "I'm out of here before-"

"Not so fast, young lady", said one of the teachers present, "You, and your friends here will be attending the remedial classes as soon as possible."

"There not my- oh whatever. The overtime for the school day is over, anyway."

"Ah. Good point. Mr. Nishimura will be seeing you in remedials tomorrow morning, on the dot then", said the teacher, as he walked off.

"Wait, on the dot? When is on the dot, specifically? You have not mentioned a specific time to come in!"

"Well then, this has all been rather... [What's the Japanese word for 'Anti-climatic'?]" asked Riley to Amy, but the last part in English.

"Anti-climatic?" responded Amy.

"[Ah, yep, that's the word. Hey, you go on home first, I got stuff to do, and you've-]"

"[Igotta get ready for work. I'll see you later, bro]", said Amy in English too, as she left the slowly dissipating amassing of people.

"[You too, sis.]

"So, what do we do now?" asked Akane to Hiromi, who was talking to Yoshiko, Genji, and Mayura as well.

"Well, the day's over, so we're all gonna go home and recharge our batteries", said Hiromi.

"And, after that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, with the information I gave you, I assume that you'd... you know."

"..."

Hiromi didn't say anything, but her expression gave off what she was thinking.

"... Whatever happens next, I won't blame you", began Akane, "A chance at grabbing a scholarship is one you shouldn't pass up."

Akane turned around, and began to walk away.

"Next time our paths cross", she began, "It will not be as allies."

She began to walk away, but what Yoshiko said next stopped her in her tracks, "Actually, maybe it will."

Akane looked back at her, and after a minute, her face lit up with understanding, she became giddy with excitement, and she skipped back to the group of 4. A revolution was coming, and she'd be damned if she had no part in it.

"Hey, what happened to Akihisa?" asked John to Mateuz and Andre.

"He took off as soon as the war ended", answered Andre, "Said he had to go grab his stuff from his classroom and head home. He also told me to tell you, 'I hope that I'll be able to hang out with you again'. Je, kid loco."

 **"He asked for his classroom sign back. Again"** , commented Mateuz, as he held a broken wooden sign that said '2-F' on it, **"I said no. Again. It's mine now. It's a souvenir. It's very souvenirable."**

"Not a word", said John.

 **"Yeesh John, really?"**

"Really. You can't just make up words willy-nilly. There are impressionable people in the vicinity."

"John is right, Mateuz", said Andre, "Making up words can lead to sociopathicity and bordermonium."

"Andre, I swear to literally every single non-existent God!"

John looked to his side, and saw Miharu looking at them, her face that of sorrow, and her eyes still red and raw.

"C'mon guys", said John as he puled Mateuz and Andre away, "Let's just grab Jack and get out of here before the storm hits. We're done for the day."

Andre looked at him, "Sebastian-"

"No. We're not having this conversation, Andre."

He couldn't even looked Miharu in the eye as he left.

* * *

 _Meanwhile..._

* * *

Akihisa sighed to himself. Today had been a very long day. You know, getting caught up in a war and all. On top of that, he met a boat load of new people today, which means a boat load of new friends! HAHA! It's like a dating simulator! Now, all he had to do was tick off all of the right boxes, and bada Bing, bada boom, he'll have his own harem of pretty ladies!

HA!

Joking.

Like anyone would fall for him.

At times like these, he was glad that no one else was in Class F at the moment, as he packed his things up. If the FFF heard what he was thinking, boom, lights out. If Minami heard what he was thinking, then boom, lights out (He really didn't know why she always reacted like that when he talked about... literally anything). If literally anyone in Class F heard him say that, boom, lights out. He was pretty sure that everyone in Class F had a case of chronological backstabbing disorder. They all had to spend 20% of their time watching out for their enemies, and 75% of it watching out for their own allies, for Pete's sake.

Akihisa wished that at times like these, Nacalie or his aunt Raven (AKA the coolest person on planet dirt) was around, as they always helped him through times where it felt like the world was against him. He had fond memories of him and Nacalie hanging out and playing together until they were 12. Just him and her, against the world. He also had fond memories of Aunty Raven, with her telling him stories, or her giving him piggybacks when he was 6, and her letting him ride in an apache attack chopper.

Ah, fun times.

Still, Akihisa wouldn't trade the friends he had now for the world. Even if they maybe hurt him a few times, they were still his friends, and god forbid those who hurt his friends. Even so, they were all stuck on the same boat together, so they wouldn't really have much of a choice in the way of becoming friends.

He's said friends a lot in that last sentence. And boat. Boats. 1 or the other.

Akihisa continued to pack all his stuff into his bag, as he spotted the storm clouds in the distance. They have really gotten closer. He should probably book it before the storm hits home.

He finished packing his bag, but noticed his water bottle. Completely full. He must not have drunk anything from it today. That explains the thirst.

He then took off the cap to his bottle, and took a refreshing-

"Aki."

Akihisa stopped at the sound of that voice. He knew that sound.

He looked to the door, to see Minami standing at the entrance. At first, she looked the same as ever, but upon closer inspection, something was... off, about her. Her bangs were loose, and hung over her forehead, and her hair colour seemed much more faded than before. Her eyes seemed dull, and her skin seemed faded, yet pale. Her bow that did her ponytail was gone, and her hair had been let down, though it was now slightly shorter. Her clothes were dirtied, and rugged, and looked like they had been through the works, and even her voice seemed rough, yet soft.

"Oh, Minami", replied Akihisa, "Hi. I thought you would've gone home by now."

Minami seemed a bit surprised by him calling her by her name, then nodded to herself, "Oh, um, I had stuff to do."

"Oh, really?"

"Really."

"... Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine."

"No, you're really not", said Akihisa, as he stood up, and walked over to Minami, "You look sad."

"Hm? Oh, well, I was just reminiscing about some... unpleasant memories."

"Oh, well I don't know what, remini-whatever means, but if you're thinking about bad things, you shouldn't. If you live in the past, you'll be stuck there forever. IDW Optimus Prime, issue 11."

A little bit of life returned to her eyes.

"You were doing so well with that haiku, Aki. So well."

"Hey, it's called brand awareness, and copyright."

"Well, yeah, but still."

"Back to my point, you shouldn't be thinking about bad memories or bad things. If you do that, then it will only lead to more bad things. Trust me, I should know."

"Hm."

"Anyways, did something happen to you? I mean, your clothes..."

"Oh, these?" Minami said as she looked down to her uniform, "Oh, it's okay. I just fell down whilst carrying some stuff, that's all."

"Oh, well, do we need to take you to the infirmary, or some-"

"No, it's fine, really. I've had worse."

"Yeah, with your strength, I don't doubt that."

A little bit more life in her eyes.

"Listen, Aki. A lot has happened in my life. A lot that I'm not comfortable talking about."

"Oh, like what?"

"..."

"Oh, wait."

" _Sigh_. Anyway, a lot of bad things have happened in my life", Minami said as she looked down, "A lot that's made me the person that I am now, so-"

"Minami, look at me", sternly said Akihisa as he put his hands on Minami's shoulders. She seemed to shudder from this, but looked up at Akihisa, and eased up, "Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. Whatever happened in your past doesn't matter. What matters now is that you're surrounded by people who care about you, and people who love you."

Her eyes flickered with that little bit more life.

"The past is irrelevant", said Akihisa, "What matters is what happens now."

"Wow, that's nice to hear, Aki", said Minami, with a sad smile on her face, "Did you practice that or something?"

"Nope. It just came to my mind."

"Eh?"

"I was YOLOing it."

"Oh."

"So please, if you have any problems, you can talk to us about it. Where it be home issues, or self esteem, or your incredible flat chest-"

Akihisa slapped his hand against his mouth, and slammed his eyes shut, awaiting the brutal beating. Instead, he heard a giggle. He opened his eyes, to see Minami giggling, her eyes still dull, but they had much more life in them then before, "God almighty, you're an idiot."

"Hey! Don't be so blunt and hurt my feelings like that!" Akihisa cried out.

Minami stopped giggling, and looked at Akihisa, with a sad smile, "Well, your heart was always bigger than your brain, so it's better to have one of them then neither."

"Was that a compliment or an insult?"

"Yes."

"..."

Minami then looked down for a moment, then back up to Akihisa, "Hey, I... gotta go. I've got people waiting for me."

"Oh, well in that case, go on ahead. You shouldn't keep them waiting", said Akihisa, as he turned around and walked back to his desk, where his bag was.

"Un", said Minami, "...And, Akihisa?"

"Hm?"

"...Stay safe, okay?"

"Oh Minami, it's me. What could go wrong?"

He didn't see Minami's reaction.

"...Well then. Goodbye, Akihisa Yoshii."

Akihisa was slightly puzzled as to why she referred to him with his full name, but he didn't think that much about it, "See you later, Minami."

"...Yeah, see you later", Minami responded.

Akihisa swore that he heard Minami mutter something after she said that, and turned to face her, only to see that she was gone, like she was never there.

Huh.

She was such a confusing girl.

* * *

The girl thought back Akihisa, savouring his words. As she walked back home, she felt, in her heart, a fire long lost, now rekindled. Her ethereal flame was now stronger than ever, her jaded heart shining just that little bit brighter, and the broken life in her dulled eyes shone brightly once more, after so long of damage and pain.

As the blithe sun's warm light came down on the once petite girl and the land around her, blissfully ignorant of the damage it shone upon, on the petite girl's face, a smile- Something she had not done genuinely in a very long time- Formed gently on her lips.

It was a sad smile. A proud smile.

* * *

 **And that's it for this chapter.**

 **Sorry I was gone for so long. I had to work on my other stories, and write this beast of a chapter. Also, college and general distractions was, and is, a thing, so... yeah.**

 **On a side note, in case either you haven't noticed, or I haven't been trying hard enough, this story is gonna have a few mature themes in it. Trust me, it will only get worse from here.**

 **I will also be taking the time to give some character to previously unheard of characters in this story, as well as OC background characters. In case you also haven't noticed, this story is gonna have one hell of a big cast.**

 **Also, I've edited all of the chapters prior to this, either major, or minor changes. This is gonna be something that I do a lot. Like, a real lot. Better get used to it.**

 **So, with all that out of the way, be sure to review, follow, and keep check of my profile and other stories. And as an extra bit of anticipation, I've got a little surprise planned for y'all later, with it's start buried somewhere in this chapter itself! Happy theorising!**


	6. The first day: At close of day

**Takes place during the first half of We Are Human Season one Chapter one**

* * *

"Er, quickie question: where did you get the pull along wagon?" queried Andre, as the Prometheans walked down the school path to the gate. Fumizuki Academy's day had officially ended, and now that they had gotten Jack from, well, what was left of Class E and the people in there, they were going to start walking back to their new home in the Industrial district. Like many times before, a cargo helicopter flew loudly over the school, carrying it's robotic cargo in it's underbelly.

"I found it", replied John with a straight face, his red left eye still covered by his hair, and his hand dragging along a child's pull along wagon, which had a small tarp over it that barely hid what was underneath.

"Really?" asked Andre with a questioning look, his arms now folded.

"Yep."

* * *

 _"Oi kid", said John to a 5 year old as he poked his head above the Academy wall._

 _"Hello", innocently said the child, a pull along wagon with his school utensils in it behind him._

 _John then quickly jumped over the wall, snatched the wagon with one hand, emptied its content over the ground, and threw the wagon over the wall._

 _"Mine now", said John before quickly jumping back over the wall._

 _"...Huh?"_

* * *

"I don't believe you", said Andre.

"Never said you had too."

"Dios mío, John. Dios mío."

"What? What? What did I say? Like, seriously, what did I say?"

"Never mind."

"No, seriously, please tell me what I- tell me what I just said just then that was so unexceptionable."

Andre just sighed in response. Feeling that he had won the argument, (If there ever was one), John let himself have a smirk, and looked forwards again, to the entrance. As John, Andre, and the other Prometheans walked towards the gates, John saw a person standing by the open gate, with white hair, and the Fumizuki Academy uniform. He had his arms folded, and his back was leaning on the open metal gate. John remembered him from earlier. He had been watching him and Jack talk to Yuuko and her entourage earlier, though he wasn't sure if he had been glaring at John or leering at Yuuko either. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was neither. John didn't really know.

Before he could let the others know, Mateuz piped up with, **"Oi, you lot, I spy with my singular eye, a boy who name begins with A, and ends with A."**

"Aya?" jokingly asked Jack, who, from the sound of it, was already aware of whom Mateuz was talking about.

 **"Nopedy nope"** , said Mateuz as the Prometheans all stopped in place, knowing who Mateuz was indicating to, but wishing to play along.

"Annabella?" went Andre.

 **"Na. Your turn Sebas- John. Sorry."**

John didn't give a response. He really wasn't in the mood.

 **"John?"**

"..."

 **"John?"**

"..."

 **"John? John? Joh- I can do this forever."**

"Sigh, not in the mood, Mateuz."

 **"Jesus, you're utterly fastidious, John. Utterly fastidious, I says."**

"His words are the ones, which are correct", said Jack.

 _There are less complicated ways of talking, you know_ , thought John, before looking at Mateuz and saying, "It's Akihisa, isn't it? The guy who I carried to the infirmary. Him?"

 **"Utterly fastidious- yes, that guy. I swear, you get a kick out of ruining my fun."**

"You know, even I don't know. And I know a lot of stuff. Also you're using the word 'fastidious' in the wrong context."

"Like how to speak perfect Japanese", went Andre, ignoring his last sentence, "And Spanish. And Egyptian. And English. And Chinese. And-"

John just let him carry on for a bit, and looked to where Mateuz was looking towards himself, seeing Akihisa standing in between a couple of cherry blossom trees, along with 3 others. John recognised them as some of the guys from Class F from earlier in the day, being the Yuuko wannabe, the blue haired boy, and the tall red head boy. They seemed to be talking about something, though John couldn't hear what it was. They also didn't seem to notice them at all, but John decided to throw a wave at them anyway, just because it seemed polite.

Akihisa seemed to notice this, as he looked at the Prometheans, and gave back a cheerful wave. John figured that he was naturally gregarious, judging from that reaction. The other 3 took notice of this too, and they had rather mixed reactions. the Yuuko wannabe was of stoic intrigue and caution. The red head was of caution, yet devious interest. The blue haired was stoic, like Hideyoshi, yet he seemed to be paying less attention to the Prometheans, and more to his camera, which he had in his hand.

John paid little attention to the other 5, and looked to Mateuz, who himself said, **"Seems like a nice guy. Unlike most of the other guys and gals we've known."**

"I feel you, buddy", said John, "I feel you."

* * *

"They're alright, Yuuji", said Akihisa, as he stopped waving at the 4 new students in Class A, and looked to the tall red head next to him, "They're kinda like us, in a way."

"How are they 'Kinda like us'?" asked Yuuji, his eyebrows arched, and his face skewed with actual curiosity.

"Well, they're a bunch of weirdos-"

 **"Heard that!"**

"The robot heard that", said Hideyoshi.

"Yeah, I heard that he heard it, too", said Akihisa, "And I'm sure that he heard that I heard that he-"

"Akihisa", firmly said Yuuji.

"Sorry", muttered Akihisa, before continuing from where he left off previously, "Anyway, there a bunch of weirdos, and... 'K, that's about it. I think."

"You said they were kind of like us, and then you say that all we and they have in common is being a bunch of weirdos?"

"No offense, by the way."

"Offense taken."

"Right then", muttered Akihisa under his breath.

Yuuji placed his finger and thumb under his chin, gazing off into an unseen distance, before quickly looking to the 3 new students and their robot, and then back to Akihisa, "What else do you know about these guys?"

"Planning for the next war against-"

"Don't say it out loud, idiot", quietly, but firmly said the Class F Representative. Akihisa quickly took note that there were still other students that were leaving the Academy. Most of them were from year 2's Classes B to E, but he did take notice that a few of that number were from Class A, or most notably, not those seen in the war earlier today. That meant that they probably were from Yuuko's group within Class A. Which meant, in the slightest hint of there being a threat to Class A's status, they would go and tell Yuuko immediately.

"Right. Right. Sorry."

"So yeah", continued Yuuji, "What else do you know about them?"

* * *

After that little exchange of banter, the Prometheans then walked past the gate, but John stopped himself when he saw the albino boy again, now leaning against the outside side of the Academy wall, and with 3 others, next to a sign that had graffiti on it saying, 'Where's our justice!'. 2 of them were boys (One of which seemed a tad bit effeminate. Not as much as the Yuuko wannabe- Hideyoshi, John remembered Akihisa calling him- but still, it was there) and the other one was a girl.

John surveyed the group of 4. He knew not their names, or their intention, but from the look on their faces and their body language, it seemed to not be anything relatively good. He wasn't too sure, but at the moment, he cared little for it, or them. Though he did take note of a red mark on his hand, almost like a mark of blood.

"What?" asked the albino boy. He seemed to have noticed John looking at him.

"Hm?" hummed John. He kept himself neutral. He really wasn't in the mood for a conversation.

"What are you looking at?"

"Oh. Nothing."

"You were looking at me."

"Oh, well, I might've been, but I was daydreaming. Probably."

"You were daydreaming while looking at me?"

"Well, when someone daydreams, they would often just stare at stuff, seeing as they're not really paying attention to anything at all. Like I was doing. Just then."

"Well, don't stare at me. You stare at me again, you'll regret it."

"Oh, really?" Now John was becoming curious, "Would I?"

"Yeah, you would. I know ways- a lot of ways- to make someone's life a living hell. You piss me off, I will do everything in my power to destroy you."

John found it very hard to take this guy seriously. He just seemed a bit hammy, and all. Also, the albino seemed a bit full of himself, with the whole 'I can destroy your life and stuff' and all of that. He couldn't help let out a little chuckle and a grin, "Well, I'll take your word for it, then."

"Don't laugh at me", now, the albino boy was becoming more animated with his movements, moving off of the wall, and pointing his finger at the taller boy, "Are you laughing at me? Don't laugh at me. I'm being serious. I can destroy you. I can. Really. Just like-", the albino snapped his fingers together, "-Just like that. Actually, no. I wouldn't even need to snap, or even lift my fingers. Finger. Plural or none, I wouldn't even need to lift anything. Hell, I can probably have you killed, and there'd be nothing you can do about it, or to me."

John's grin faded when he heard that last sentence, which was then replaced by a curious, and almost cautious expression. He noted that the albino boy had said this with almost 100% confidence in his voice. While the boy seemed to have a penchant for rambling, he seemed to be almost completely convinced in his threats. While he seemed like a scrawny little bastard with almost no muscle on him at all, he definitely seemed convinced in himself, and didn't seem like the kind of guy to back down from something, and judging by the fact that his 3 other buddies had stopped leaning off the wall as well, and were at his side, they seemed to be quite loyal to the albino boy. Also he was acting like a daft arse.

Possible threat: Noted.

John rolled his eyes, not betraying his cool body expression, placed his free hand in his pocket, and looked away from the albino boy. Seeing that the other Prometheans had walked off, down a nearby pathway, John started to walk down that path, pulling his tarp covered wagon along with him.

"Yeah, walk away, pussy", called out the albino boy, "'Sides, I got to have a little chat with Roly Poly."

John seemed to have acquired a slight urge to find the nearest flat surface and slam this guy's head against it.

Eh. Another time.

* * *

"Akihisa... Akihisa."

"Oh, what?" asked Akihisa, as he gently shook his head.

"I asked about what else you knew about them, but you just started staring at the tall one with heterochromia talking to the albino guy", said Yuuji, his arms folded, and himself leaning against a tree.

"Oh, right. Sorry. I must've wondered off", that's only a half truth. Akihisa had thought that he'd heard something, and was trying to signal in on what it was.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"What do you- Augh", Yuuji stopped himself, and one of his hands twitched for a second. He might've almost slapped his hand against his face instinctively, but must've stopped himself before he did, "Freaking idiot", he muttered that bit, though Akihisa did hear it. His feeling were hurt, of course. Yuuji then said in a frustrated tone, "What else do you know about them?"

"Oh, well", Akihisa put his finger on his chin, and began to wonder to himself. He remembered his conversation with who seemed like the lead of the new band of brothers. John, he remembered the lead's name was. John Prometheus. Like the Alien prequel, only a person, and not a movie, and actually a person, who just happened to share the same name as the movie, and also had a Latin name for different eyes. Anyways, Akihisa remembered earlier in the day, when he talked to John, and then when John said that he didn't trusted Hideyoshi's sister, Yuuko, who was the de facto leader of Class A, alongside Shouko, Yuuji's girlfriend. Akihisa started to consider wherever he should really tell Yuuji what John said. He felt that it might hurt John if he told Yuuji about what he said, and he seemed like he actually wanted to become friends with him. Then again, John had said that he did expect Akihisa to tell Yuuji, so maybe he wouldn't be hurt if he did tell Yuuji about what he said, "Well, John did say to me that he didn't really trust Yuuko, or her friends", Akihisa then looked to Hideyoshi, and said, "You know, your-"

"My sister", replied Hideyoshi, "Yeah, I know. I'd guessed. There aren't that many people in the academy with the same name as my sister."

"...There's a girl in Class D called Yuuko", said Kouta out of nowhere, still polishing his camera, and still with the slight delay before he spoke. He'd had that since he and Akihisa met back when they were 8 years old, "Changed her name to Yuko to avoid confusion (Yuko? Yūko? One of the 2)."

"Wow, a full sentence", snarked Yuuji, "Very impressive, Kouta."

"...Un."

"And we're back."

"You were so close, Kouta", said Hideyoshi, "So close. And stop taking pictures of me."

"...I haven't taken any today."

"I meant period. Stop taking pictures of me, period."

"That's like asking him to stop breathing", commented Yuuji.

"Yeah! Why would you seek to deny my friend his greatest passion, Hideyoshi!" dramatically exclaimed Akihisa as he held Kouta in a not-gay-slightly-looking-gay brohug, "What he brings to us is the greatest of treasures that fill our hearts with the highs of joy!"

"What he brings to the world are pictures of me half naked", sighed Hideyoshi.

"HE HAS A CONDITION!"

"I thought it was a passion?"

"IT'S A PASSIONATE CONDITION!"

"It's an annoyance."

"PASSIONATE CONDITION!"

"Ugh", muttered Hideyoshi under his breath, "Why do I even bother with you?"

"Because you love-"

"No."

"One day, I says", cheerfully said Akihisa. No one there was sure if he was joking, or being serious. They then figured that even Akihisa didn't know, himself.

"Akihisa", said Yuuji, "Please continue."

"Hm?" hummed Akihisa, now moving away from Kouta, and back to his original position.

" _Sigh_ , with what you were saying earlier. About this 'John' guy not trusting Yuuko and her friends in Class A."

"Oh, right, yeah. Well, John said that he doesn't really trust Yuuko, but I think that's all he said about it."

"You think?"

"Hey, I was kinda in the middle of an ESB war, and there was a lot going on! Surely I'm allowed the benefit of the doubt for forgetting a few details!"

"Or maybe it was just your rotten brain forgetting something important."

"Brain?" asked Hideyoshi with his trademark deadpan snark.

"WHY IS IT EVERYONE'S MISSION TO MAKE ME FEEL LIKE CRAP!?" dramatically exclaimed Akihisa, unaware of the weird looks that everyone around the group was giving them.

"Also, ESB war? Really?" asked Yuuji.

"What?"

"ESB means Exam Summoning Battle, idiot. You were basically saying Exam Summoning Battle war. Who says that?"

Hideyoshi and Kouta raised their hands, and Akihisa did too, while saying, "I heard Hiraga say it too."

"Hiraga? As in Class D's representative?" asked Hideyoshi

"Yep. He was there with the other Prometheans, and the Harrison siblings, and most of Class D, because they wanted to watch, and then some of Class A showed up, then some of Class E, as well as Hiraga's girlfriend (Whom I shall be reporting to the FFF, of course), then we went to watch, then there was a glitch, and then it all just kinda escalated, and then the school turned into Saving Private Ryan's D-Day scene, and I was so awesome, during it all, and-"

"Yeah, we know", said Yuuji, "Hideyoshi and Minami told us about it."

"At least the part of the war that we saw", said Hideyoshi, "We didn't see the end though. We'd left by the time you lot entered the pond area."

"Oh, well, it ended with Nemoto's avatar getting offed at the last moment", replied Akihisa, "Still got no idea who offed him. It was kinda crowded, and I almost got my avatar killed just by almost getting him stepped on." _I should also go talk to Minami_ , he then thought, _She seemed a bit off when I talked to her earlier. And since she's got stuff going on, I should-_

 _Sniff_

Akihisa swung his head around to behind him. There it was again. That sound. The sound that he had heard earlier. The sound that had distracted him from answering Yuuji's question earlier. What was that? He didn't know, and he wished to know.

"Akihisa?" asked Hideyoshi, his arms once folded, now unfolded, and Yuuji now wore a curious look on his face. Even Kouta had turned away from his camera, and looked to his distracted classmate (Though he only did this after a few moments after his peers).

They didn't hear it. He didn't know how he knew. He just... he just felt it. He just felt that they didn't hear it. Still, it wouldn't kill him to ask, "Did you hear that?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Hear what?" asked Yuuji.

There it was.

"I don't know", answered Akihisa, "Just... I don't know. Something."

"What?"

"...I don't know." He then started to walk away from his peers, his bag swung over his back, and his stride casual, yet focused. He then quickly stopped in his tracks, and looked back to the others, "Look, I'll see you guys tomorrow, 'k? I gotta... I don't know, find out if I'm going crazy or not. Well, crazier, I guess."

The 3 others just looked at each other, and then just shrugged, picking themselves up, and walking to the entrance, now talking to each other, and thinking that Akihisa was just doing something stupid as he always did. Akihisa, meanwhile went off to find the sound, and also, to find out what was making it.

* * *

Yuuko looked down from the Class A window, as the orange light of the setting sun filled the hall for a room, and the clouds of the coming storm began to enshroud the dimming sunlight. She observed as she saw the lead group from Class F split apart, with the school punishment inspector, Yoshii, moving off to one area, and the other 3 moving to the school gates. Yuuko wondered what the school idiot was doing. She wasn't exactly perspicacious. She didn't really know much about how Yoshii's head work. Then again, there was that time that she and Hideyoshi switched places for a day, so that Hideyoshi could pretend to be her during a performance, but she had chosen to eschew that little event from her mind.

Apart from the part where Yoshii complimented her.

She... liked that part.

Not that she'd ever admit it.

She continued to watch the people down below her, talking and walking together, and marching towards the open gates towards the day's end. A few of them seemed rather contentious with each other, possibly being from different classes, or from the recent war that was fought today, apparently, so the possibility of resentment between fellow peers might worsen thanks to either the results, or just to dumb luck. Others were more friendly to one another, casually talking, playing, and a few even loving, though not outright in front of everyone. A very few were acting obsequious towards others, following in their shadows, and hoping for recognition from those that they follow, and those that they follow acted high and mighty, feeling powerful from having a follower of whatever cause or desire that they preached. All of this was visible, but not heard by Yuuko. The sound proofing of the room as well as the windows prevented the large room from becoming a cacophony, making the flutter of a fly and the pitter patter of the kitchen tap echo throughout the hall through the deafening silence.

"Oi, Yuuko", she recognised her name being called, and the caller. Yuuko pivoted her body around to look behind her, and to the origin of the sound, to see 2 of her closest friends- Aiko and Kubo (His actual first name was Toshimitsu, but everyone, Kubo included, found it easier to call him by his last name), the pith of what Class A should be, and the hearts of Yuuko's circle of friends- standing by the closest entrance/exit of Class A, their bags on, and next to them on the wall, a painting of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart hung high, which the academy purported to have been made by a famous artist, though Yuuko had her doubts (If anything, it looked like it was made by John Wallin Liberto). Aiko spoke, as before, "We've gotta get goin' now. Wanna tag along?" her voice was lax and casual, as always, and her eyes gave off their usual sparkle.

Yuuko then said, "I think I'll stay here for a bit longer. Just take it all in, I guess. You guys head back home, get some rest. Something tells me that we're going to be really busy in the next few days."

Aiko made a pouty face, in a fake display of melancholy, though her eyes still retained that same sparkle as before, as always. She then ceased, and gave back the world her smile, as to maybe avoid the ire of Yuuko. She then said, "Alright then. Don't stay up too late now, missy", she said that last sentence in an exaggerated accent, before letting both herself and Kubo give off a guffaw, and then walked out of the room, and into the outside hallway. Yuuko heard her say to another, "C'mon Shouko", before closing the door, leaving the hall in silence once more.

Shouko. The Class A representative, and second year valedictorian. Yuuko wasn't ashamed or embarrassed to admit that she had a bit of a woman crush on the etiolated girl. Not in the romantic sense, of course- she actually didn't really have romantic feelings for anyone at this moment, except for maybe the pretty boys in her mangas and games back home, though that's probably just lust- but still, she had a strong feeling of respect and admiration towards her. Yes, she was aware that Shouko was autistic, hence why she seemed to act so socially obtuse around people, yet she also had savant syndrome, which meant that she could memorise amazing amounts of information, and put it to good use, like in calculation, literature, and so on and so forth, so that did leave a good impression on her. She was also very graceful with how she did... well, pretty much everything, and when you get to know her, she was shown to be rather acute with people, and wise beyond her years.

Again, not romantic. Yuuko wished to stress that out.

Yuuko turned away from the far side of the hall, and back to the large window, the orange and pink light from the setting sun bathing her, and the reflective light from it shielding the outside of the window from people looking in. Yuuko could see the dark storm clouds on the horizon, spreading it's dark shadow over the horizon. She could see the large city of Fumizuki City in front of the academy, as well as it's environs from the second floor of the new building, to which Class A resided. Yuuko could see the vast construction work that was spread throughout the city, the agglutinated framework of buildings and cranes towering amongst the skyscrapers, and helicopters and some small type of aircraft that Yuuko had never seen before floated in the air, delivering both large pieces of machinery, and large boxes containing who knew what.

Yuuko then looked down, and saw an albino boy standing near the gates, as well as 3 others. The albino was called Fujio Bando, and his friends were Koharu Higa (Sister of Akane Higa), Zenzō Teruya, and Gin Yano. They purported themselves to be so called 'Loyalists' of the whole fracture in Class A, between Yuuko's group, and Akane's group of 'Reformists'. However, Yuuko knew what Bando and his circle of friends actually were: toxic. They were a cancer that had spread across the entirety of Class A, and were only escalating this entire situation into something worse. Was it for their own amusement? Yuuko didn't know, though that might be the case for them at all.

This entire fracture in Class A was starting to get ridiculous. When Yuuko first got into Class A, back in Year 2, she had expected it to be a paradise, though those expectations were quickly shattered on the first few days. The entire class was meant to be the best of the best. A thriving room of future leader, scholars, and whatnot. However, it eventually became clear to Yuuko that there were those who weren't happy with what was going on, and the entire system as a whole. Hell, on the first day (Or the first few days, she wasn't really sure), Akane's group had a peaceful protest of sorts. What it was about, Yuuko could very well remember. It was about the entire ranked system, based on ones level of intelligence. Not grades, intelligence. Yuuko couldn't exactly remember what they'd specifically said they'd do- it might've been something like not participating in any ESBs, or something along those lines- but she did remember what'd happened next.

She didn't mean for what happened to actually happen. She just wished to bring order to her class- nay, the school. Then again, maybe declaring war on Class F on the first day of the year didn't really help the rising tension as well. Still, all she had done was tell the teachers about the fractures, and then, they told the Principal. There were a few in Yuuko's group in Class A who say that the Principal had also told someone else higher up than her, but those were just rumors. In the end, it mattered not. Most of those in Akane's group were expelled from the school, and from what she had heard, most of those same people had to move cities just, because of the influence of those whom Yuuko had no knowledge of. Apparently one of those guys- Maeda Rika, his name was- died through means which she were unaware of, though she had decided not to go to his funeral. She figured that if she did go, It would've been seen as a great insult to both him and his friends. They'd might think that she'd be taking advantage of Maeda's death to 'inveigle' them to her side, though Yuuko would never think of doing such a thing, at such a time.

Yuuko placed her hand on her arm, at first tenderly rubbing the skin, then harshly increasing the grip as she thought to what had happened, a pained sneer on her face. She had asked about how Maeda had died, once, though no one gave her an answer. And something told her that she really didn't want to know.

And now, thanks to those incidences, and with the coming of the new second wave of students coming to Fumizuki academy, as well as the rising issues of resentment between the different ranked classes, and the tensions between Class A and the idiots in Class F, the fracture in Class A was now growing worse and worse. Higa Akane's group were inveighing and remonstrating against Yuuko and her group, not to mention that Higa herself was manipulative and a genuine psycho (Before one wonders why she hadn't had her removed from Class A, it's a delicate matter), almost everyone in Yuuko's own group, save for her closest friends (or her inner circle, as others called them), were rather unreasonable and egotistical asses, who were only sticking around out of either fear or, well, whatever reasons, Bando's circle just wished to take advantage of the chaos for whatever gain they wished, and everyone else was just caught in the middle of the hate and anger. And the Harrisons... The Harrisons hated her. No matter how hard she tried to change that, the Harrisons hated her with a passion, and probably would never stop despising her.

Yuuko sighed, and gazed out to the city before the Academy. She hated it. She hated the fact that both of the Harrisons hated her. She hated the fact that most of her class hated her. She hated the fact that most of the school hated her. She loved everyone in her class (Well, mostly everyone). She really did. They just didn't understand everything, yet. They just didn't understand the system that the school used. But they will, in time. They will soon-

She was brought out of her oneiric thoughts when she saw, out of the large window, a familiar peer wended out of the building, in a sort of reverie fashion, to the gates out of the school, and to wherever he resided, most likely down the boulevard in front of the school. Harrison Riley. One of the Harrison siblings. Hm, speak of the devil. Though Yuuko hardly considered the dainty boy a thing of the devil. If anything, Yuuko had a bit of a high admiration and respect for Harrison, it wasn't higher than her admiration for Shouko. She didn't think that anything could top that level of fangirl madness. #Nohomo. Still though, Yuuko did hold the guy in somewhat high regards, seeing as how he was able to trudge through the crap excuses and false accusations against him over the course of the school year, and the fact that Amy and he had been able to survive in a rather destitute lifestyle for who knows how long.

Yes, Yuuko was somewhat aware of the Harrisons' lifestyle, seeing as how he would constantly steal food from the classroom's fridge (Including Aiko's cheesecake earlier today, it would seem), and also the good pencils for his drawing habit, though she didn't know the full details or extent of it all. She would admit that she was a bit irritated by the fact that they would steal stuff from Class A, though she didn't really mind it in the long run. No one else in the school knew about it, apart from those in Class A, and as long as it stayed that way, and didn't harm her class's reputation, then he could go full regalia for all she cared, seeing as she herself never actually ate anything from the classroom, or was never particularly into art anyway. She never saw the point of drawing, anyhow.

Actually, not even an hour ago, Yuuko saw him hiding under a box, sliding across the room, like he was Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and stealing stuff from the previously mentioned fridge. Yuuko didn't say anything and just let him do his thing, like most other times, both out of a sense of pity, and the fact that she found it his attempts at being sneaky rather humorous in a way, though there were a few times since the beginning of the school year where she did have to go on a bit of a tirade on both him and his sister for stealing, as it wasn't very fitting for members of-

Wait.

Harrison.

Bando.

No.

Yuuko saw Bando and his little circle advance towards Harrison, no doubt ready to spew invectives his way once more, and she saw their soon to be pray stop in place, not even bothering to ready himself for a fisticuff, and seemingly accept his undeserved fate. She was about to open the window and spew vitriol towards the glib albino, before quickly deciding against it and running towards the classroom door. She began to crave the catharsis of a fight, the desire to cave Bando's head into itself suffusing her. Was it about Harrison? No. It was about the need to punch a dick in the head. Her hands caved into fists, as she imagined her knuckles impacting with the malignant albino, and his blood pooling on the floor.

She slammed the sliding door open, splinters of wood flying from the harshly used door (Sometimes she really didn't know her own strength, though that might've been due to her having a super-heart, like so many other peers at the academy), and she sprinted down the corridor, barging past a student carrying a home made cake, which then fell to the floor. She imagined him spewing opprobrium towards her, both in his head and out loud, but that mattered little.

Aiko and the others noticed her running in their direction. Before she could ask in her usual solicitous tone, Yuuko barged past them, and slammed the door to the stairway open.

As she ran down the stairs, she heard a loud rumble. Another helicopter must've flown across the academy. She paid it no mind.

Once she'd gotten to ground level, she kicked the door to the hallway open, almost slamming into a peer, and then the ran down the hallway, although slower now, as she was now running out of breath. Most in Class A weren't exactly known for their physique. Yuuko had figured that that had been something that Class F had taken advantage of during their last war with them.

As she almost fell over in the locker room when she barged through the doors, before quickly regaining her footing, she imagined Bando shouting excuses and gesticulating wildly before she slammed her fist into his jaw, breaking his teeth. Oh, the fantasies.

She shoved the door open, attempting to stand there in a heroic posture, but instead bending downwards and placing her hands on her knees, out of breath. After a few moments of wheezing, she looked up, and raised her fists, ready to do battle with the... heinous...

Oh no.

Still wheezing for breath, Yuuko looked around her surroundings, across the academy's august pathway and surroundings, to see neither Harrison nor Bando. Scanning her surroundings, she saw no indication that they were ever there, save for a single drop of blood on the ground...

 _Damn it..._

Now, Yuuko knew not where they were, nor what would be done. She could only imagine what borderline macabre things and desires Bando and his cronies would force upon the infirm boy...

All Yuuko could do, was let out a sigh of numbed regret.

Regret for not being able to punch Bando in his stupid face...

* * *

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow-"

"Okay, we get it, Kimishima, you're hurt. Guess what, we're all hurt!" yelled Ryou Sugawa to his fellow FFF member, one Kimishima Hiroshi. Earlier in the day, they had had the crap kicked out of them by those 2 guys and their pet robot, and had a bunch of their weapons stolen from them, and now Sugawa was plotting his revenge against them. Suffice to say, that hadn't been going so well, so far, "So go build a bridge and get over it!"

"Easy for you to say!" yelled back Kimishima, "You weren't the one picked up and thrown around by a 6 foot tall robot doing a freakin' Bane impression!"

* * *

 _Earlier..._

 _ **"Ah yes, I was wondering what would break first! Your spirit, or your-"**_

 _"PUT ME DOWN, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"_

 _ **"K."**_

 _"Also, talk normally! It's sounds like you've got a pack of maltesers in your OHMYGAAAAAAAAAA-"_

* * *

"That robot literally threw me across the room. Broke my pointy hat, as well", lamented Kimishima, as he held his broken FFF hat, with the purple fabric and red see through plastic over the cone torn and dented, "My Grandma and I spent 3 days making this suit, and now the hat's broken."

"YOU WERE SOCIALISING WITH A-"

"It was my Grandma, Morikawa."

"Oh, sorry", said Morikawa, rubbing his hand against the back of his head, "Instinct, I guess."

"You think you got it hard", said a member of the FFF by the name of Kondou Yoshimune, who was trying to stitch back together his purple robes with some stuff that he'd gotten together the drama club, which already had loads of supplies if any of their props were damaged. Kondou then spoke, "I got my robes torn, and my hammer got stolen. My hammer. That cost me a lot of money, you know! Mr Ohno downtown don't sell those things cheap, you know!"

"Oh yeah! Well I lost my FAMAS rifle!" yelled one Kudou Shinya, whom also had the last name of Kudou Aiko, who was in Class A, so it was possible that they were related, or it was just coincidence. Kudou then yelled, "My rifle! Sure, it only had duds, but they still hurt like a motherfucker! A fucking rifle costs a hell of a lot more than a bloody-"

"QUIET!" yelled Nishimura Yuuichirou, the nephew of Nishimura Souichi, otherwise known as the 'Ironman', the dreaded muscle bound teacher of Fumizuki Academy. He definitely was related to the much feared Ironman, as his voice boomed through the sports hall of the academy, leaving a harsh echo resonating in the hall. He then said, "So you guys lost a fight. Big whoop. So what? We've- as in me- have got bigger fish to fry!"

"How dare- We are the FFF Inquisition!" yelled back Sugawa, as he put on his bent cone/hat, "We are the unified brothers of Class F, and we-"

"Got your asses kicked, and you want revenge. Yeah, I get that, Sugawa", replied Nishimura Jr, his voice now lowered, and calm, no longer echoing in the hall. He quickly looked around the hall, first to the few members of Class F who were not members of the FFF, and the FFF themselves, who were now battered from their physical confrontation with the new members of Class A. He then looked back to Sugawa, and asked, "Have you even got a plan for getting your revenge on these new Class A guys, anyway?"

"Um, well, no, not a solid one as of yet", answered Sugawa, though he did have a rough outline of a plan that involved pissing in Class A's water coolers, so that they'd be drinking urine. He wondered why they hadn't done that before. Then, Sugawa cocked his eyebrows, and asked Nishimura Jr, "What about you, Little Hulk? You got a plan?"

"Yea- uh, well, no. Not exactly. Um- Oh, wait! That's, um, why I brought everyone hear! Yeah. Totally.."

Sugawa looked around the hall, seeing the vast amount of people present in the hall. There were about 100 people present in the sports hall, all of them from Class F. Most of those in Class F now were made up of the second wave members from all of the other high schools that had closed down, so that meant that the numbers of Class F had significantly been boosted since then. Especially after the training trip/peeping fiasco. _So close_ , Sugawa thought, but quickly stopped himself before he remembered the Principal- oh, too late. Wiping the scarring memory from his mind, Sugawa then asked, "So, what is your plan?"

"Hm? What?"

"When I asked you if you had a plan, you replied with 'Not exactly'. That means that you have a bit of a semblance of a plan. So what is it, if I may ask?"

"Um, er, well... Rush... B? I guess?"

"...Seriously?" went one Class F member, called Shibazaki Isao.

"Hey, I'm all up for suggestions. We're a democracy, or a council or whatever now, aren't we? I mean, we did have that whole rally thing a few hours ago, right?"

"Oh yeah. Mm."

"Ok", went one Class F member, who Sugawa recognised as being part of the second wave, "How about we, um, we... wait, who are we fighting against?"

"That's a good question", commented another Class F member, who Sugawa only knew as Yokoda, though he wasn't sure if it was his first name or his last.

"Oh, um, well", began Nishimura Jr, whom seemed to figuratively look into himself, before then saying, "Well, I figured that we'd, I don't know, launch a coup against Sakamoto, or beat Class A on our own, without him, or something along those lines."

"W-wait! Doesn't that seem a little- a little drastic!?"

Everyone in the hall turned their heads to the origin of the surprisingly feminine voice, to see the Class F big breasted, pink haired, fragile juggernaut Himeji Mizuki awkwardly standing next to the rolled up sports hall curtain. She seemed to have been standing in a defiant position, but quickly changed her stance when everyone looked at her, as she was shuffling her feet, and twirling her fingers together, her cheeks a soft shade of red, and her expression of slight embarrassment and worry.

"Uh, why are you here?" asked one of the Class F members, bringing with him a slight taste of nostalgia to all of the veteraned first wave Class F members.

"Oh, um", Himeji nervously began, "Well..."

"Did Sakamoto send you here to spy on us?" asked another Class F member.

"Er, no! No. That's- that's a silly thing to say!"

 _Sakamoto totally sent her here to spy on us_ , everyone simultaneously thought.

"Oh, whatever", said Nishimura Jr, who seemed to have decided to just go with it. Sugawa Didn't say anything about it. He joined the rest of the FFF in glaring at the people whom had talked to Himeji, due to the fact that they had socialised with a girl. Sugawa would make a note to have their trials tomorrow for betraying the rest of the FFF members whole sacred brotherhood thing or whatever, even though all of their stuff was either missing or broken after the fight earlier today. Nishimura Jr then continued, "Okay, so, does anyone else have any other ideas?"

"Woah, hey guys", went Mutou Keita, whom was a fellow member of the FFF, and was still wearing his outfit, even though the fabric was horribly torn, "We could do what they did in SAO Abridged, and get into groups, and-"

"-And hit 'em 'til they die?" sarcastically asked a second wave Class F member.

"Er, yeah, I guess?"

"...Well, I mean, I've not got a better idea."

"Um, well, that's a... start", said Nishimura Jr.

"Hey, that's what they said in the show!"

"Er, sure. Anybody else got any ideas, because I'm all ears. Well, I'm not literally all ears. It's a-"

"It's a figure of speech. We know", said another second wave Class F member, "I'm sure we've all heard it before."

"Mm", Himeji quickly nodded in response. This just increased the ire of the FFF to Nishimura Jr and the second wave members. Sugawa noted to include him in the roster of heretics up for trial tomorrow.

"Ugh, okay, ideas people, we need 'em!" continued Nishimura Jr, "Serious talk, lads, does-"

Suddenly, the double doors to the sports hall opened, and in stepped the infamous Ironman, or Nishimura Souichi, the hulking and threatening disciplinary teacher of Fumizuki Academy. Any doubts about him and Nishimura Jr being related were immediately expelled with the following exchange. The Ironman started, "Oi, what are all of you doing in here?"

"Um, hey Uncle Souichi", said Nishimura Jr. Many eyebrows were raised by him saying this.

"What are you doing in here, Yuu?" everyone was immediately surprised by the sense of familiarity in the teacher's voice.

"H-hey, I told you not to call me that, Souichi!" went 'Yuu' loudly, "It's childish. And demeaning. It's childishly demeaning."

"Aw, c'mon, it's a nice nickname", said Nishimura, who followed that with a hearty laugh. 'Yuu' didn't look as amused.

"Yuu?" asked Kondou, with a sly smirk.

"Shut up", muttered Yuu (Sugawa decided that that's what he'd be calling Nishimura Jr from now on, seeing as the guy hated it, and Sugawa liked getting a rise out of people). Several people started to quietly chuckle, and even Himeji let out a little giggle. Yuu then said a bit louder, "Shut up, Kondou. Just... just shut up", no one listened. No one seemed to actually take him seriously, at all. He didn't give any overly negative reaction. Instead, he just sighed, and looked to Nishimura, before asking, "What are you even doing here, Souichi?"

"The sports hall's booked. It's the sports club's time to use it", said Nishimura, as students in sports uniforms began to fill the hall, "Unless you're part of the club (in which case, go get changed and come back here quickly), you need to leave."

"What about you?"

"I'm watching over them, remember? I told you this earlier today" smiled Nishimura, "Someone's has to make sure that they don't hurt themselves. And if they do hurt themselves, especially by doing something stupid", his expression then darkened, "Well, then they might have to pay my remedial class a little visit..."

Everyone, both Class F and the sports club members, and even Yuu, shuddered in worry at the prospect of that. The Ironman's remedial classes weren't just for making sure that everyone was stocked up on points for their avatars. He had personally called them 'Disciplinary Classes' off the record a couple of times before, in the past, because of his liking of sending rowdy and unruly students to them, as punishment for whatever they did, and to also keep them in line, and since everyone knew what his remedials were like, well, just saying the name of it would make any troublemaker straighten themselves out quicker than you can say 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'. No one was safe from those classes. Not even Yuu, apparently.

"So, unless you've got a club or meeting to get to, in which case I would genuinely like to know, Yuu, then I suggest you start heading back home", he then took his attention off his nephew, and to the rest of Class F, "Same goes for all of you as well."

No one objected, or offered any kind of resistance at all. Not even before the Ironman had finished his sentence, most of Class F had already gotten up, and were walking out of the double doors. Himeji was the first to leave, almost gracelessly stumbling before regaining her footing, and race-walking out of the door. Somehow, Sugawa noticed that she still was able to look attractive while acting clumsily. Maybe he had a thing for clumsy girls. Who knows? Everyone else, however, was firm and focused in their walking, as they hurried out of the door.

Sugawa looked back to Yuu, and he could see that he was still trying to get the attention of the leaving Class F students, but was failing. Despite being a relative to the feared Ironman, no one seemed to take him seriously. Like, at all.

Sugawa let himself have the satisfaction of a sly grin. It was actually kind of funny, in a way. How Yuu was trying so hard to get respect, and to have people listen to him. It wasn't the same type of humour that he found when he saw Yoshii constantly receive pain upon his person. No. It was the type of humour that Sugawa derived from seeing people try so hard to get themselves noticed, to get respect from others, and to try to make a name for themselves, thinking that they had the skills to do what they wished to do. Something that Yoshii hardly ever did.

 _Ha._

Before one asked, yeah, he was aware of how much of a hypocrite that he sounded. The fact that he was constantly trying to have women respect and notice him, and whatnot. However, this was just the façade that he needed to keep up around his fellow FFF members. In reality, Sugawa only kept up with this because he had a large amount of power over a majority of Class F. Sugawa had power, and he really liked having any degree of power over people. All he had to do was keep up the fake mask for as long as he could, and he would be able to keep his massive amount of control over everyone under him. Sure, it did slip a few times, but it never broke. If he had a trial, it'd be quick, and he'd be back in charge again once more.

However, Sugawa wasn't stupid. Sure, he was in Class F, which really spoke volumes about his own intelligence, but he certainly wasn't as idiotic as Yoshii. He was aware when he couldn't get power over someone. Sakamoto, for example. Sugawa was aware that he wasn't smart enough to try and manipulate the Class Representative, and he definitely wasn't smart enough to come up with plans to take down entire classes. No, Sugawa was content to let Sakamoto lead the class, and do what he would. Whatever Sakamoto actually planned and did, and also whatever he actually thought of those beneath him, it hardly mattered to Sugawa. He was content to stay in his own little bubble of power and comfort, and let Sakamoto do whatever. He would admit though, when Sakamoto wanted something, he'd get it done. Sure, he had setbacks, but from the looks of things, he had everything around him under control, and had the respect and charisma to see his plans through, and the willingness of everyone to follow him definitely spoke volumes about him. This had garnered him a level of respect in Sugawa's eyes, even though he'd never admit it.

And this was what made Yuu delectably and amusingly pathetic in the eyes of Sugawa. He had no idea how to lead, and he had no idea how to actually get power. The only reason that anyone listened to him earlier today was because he was related to Nishimura. This entire democracy, or council or whatever, was a sham, which would never hold together. Unlike Sakamoto, who knew how to hold onto power, and gain respect and admiration, Yuu had no actual idea on how to lead anything. Hell, the only reason that Sugawa and a good part of the FFF came to this whole meeting was because they wanted- and still want- revenge against the group of new Class A members, and the meeting seemed like a nice way to find a way to get their vengeance. Whatever power that Yuu would get, he'd loose it immediately. And honestly, it's be fun to watch. Who knows; he might have a 'villainous breakdown'.

Yeah, he reads TV Tropes. So what? Everyone's got to have a hobby.

Sugawa broke himself out of his thoughts when he saw Yuu and a few other members of Class F- mostly second wavers, and a few FFF- talking to 2 other students in the hallway as everyone in Class F now filled the hallway and began to walk towards the exit. These 2 peers were not from Class F. One of them being female was the real kicker. These 2 introduced themselves to Yuu and his newly acquired circle. The boy being one Nakano Kenta, and the girl being one Suzuki Ichirō.

 _Well, this should be entertaining._

* * *

 _Well, this should be entertaining._

The Principal's words echoed through her mind, as she listened to the teachers read out their reports on the Summoning War, and detail their accounts. Mr Hasegawa, Ms Takeuchi, Mr Ooshima, and Ms Funakoshi had taken turns in reading out their accounts, and now, it was Mr Fuse's turn.

"-And so, one of the students- the Class C representative, Yuuka Koyama- tried to sneak away from the aftermath of the Summoning War, but I saw her, and said to her to report to Ironm- I mean Mr Nishimura tomorrow morning. On the dot", went Mr Fuse, finishing off his personal report on the war, "The student in question gave no further comment afterwords."

"Hm, very good", replied Principal Toudou.

"Um, a quick question, if you please would, ma'am", asked Mr Hasegawa, with his hand raised above his head. He didn't wait for an answer, "Um, was there some sort of event or test in the system that I- we, I mean, were unaware of, because there seemed to be something wrong with-"

"I assume you mean the ESB system, today", said the Principal, with a cool demeanour on her face, "I am aware of that. We were having changes to the ESB system made today, and it seemed to have affected the system network, for until we can fix it."

"Oh, um, right then."

"I apologise for not telling you all earlier", she continued, now addressing all of her subordinates before her, "The notion to do so had slipped my mind", the principal could tell that the teachers in front of her desk didn't really believe her, but they were smart enough to know not to question it.

"Ah, right, yes ma'am", said Mr Hasegawa, seeming somewhat content with that answer.

"What about the new Class A students?" asked Ms Takahashi Youko, the Head Teacher of Year 2, and the homeroom teacher of Class A, whom was right then standing next to the Principal's desk, with her hands folded behind her back, and her posture straight and formal, "The Prometheans, I believe they call themselves", the Principal could see that Ms Takahashi was rather curious about her new students. Not surprising, seeing how unique and intriguing this new group of students were.

"Well, to be honest", began Ms Funakoshi, "If I may ask, why is one of them a robot? Why are we allowing a machine to become a student, of all things?"

"Yes, I must agree", commented Mr Ooshima, with his eyebrows arched, "One of those new 'students' is a machine. A machine. Not a person. Why let it in? What's the point?"

"Ah, well, I do have my reasons", said the Principal, with a smirk, "I'd figured that it'd make an interesting experiment. To see how the students would react and cope with a seemingly sentient machine as one of their peers", the Principal neglected to mention that when she got the phone call from that american earlier in the day, she had also received a massive amount of money transferred from an unknown source in her own account, with a simple message in her emails list from an unknown contact, that simply said, 'Let the robot stay'. Interesting, but the Principal wasn't exactly about to object to lots of money to fund her academy and related projects. Nevertheless, she continued, "Don't worry. Nothing will change. This little incident will just be another uneventful occurrence in the history of this academy, like so many other occurrences before it."

The Principal could see that the teachers in the room were still worried about the idea of letting a robot run around in the school, but they seemed to trust the Principal and what she was saying. Considering all of the mad adventures that the students at the academy- most notably those in Class F- always have, this probably would be the same as those as well.

"Anything else?" finished the Principal.

"Well, there is... Something else", began Ms Takeuchi, "Um, one of the new students' avatar..."

The Principal arched her brow. She was now curious, "What about them?"

"Well, it, um, was different. Very different to the usual avatars..."

"Oh? How so?"

"Well, it was big. It reached up to the waist of an average person, ma'am. And it was drooling blood, and", the teacher shuddered for a second, "And it looked, well, terrifying for lack of a better word."

"Yeah, I have to agree with her", said Mr Fuse, "This avatar was completely different to what we usually see in when students summon their avatars."

Now this. This definitely peeked Principal Toudou's curiosity. True, it wasn't uncommon for there to be a few exceptions in the ESB system for avatars- the Punishment Inspector, for example- but for there to be an exception that made even the teachers break a sweat? Now that was a curiosity that needed to be seen to.

"Oh, well then", said the Principal, who began to reach to a draw in her desk, "This may require investigation. You may all leave now, by the way. Go head home, and get yourselves ready for tomorrow. It is Monday, after all."

The 4 teachers didn't need to be told otherwise. They vacated the room, heading off to most likely their own homes. Once they were gone, all who were left in the room was the Principal, and Ms Takahashi. The red haired teacher spoke first, "So, about the current nurse resigning-"

"That can wait, for a moment", said the Principal, as she pulled a cylindrical object out of her desk draw, and placed in on her desktop, "These new avatars for the new students may require an examination first", it should be noted that only the Principal and a few others were the ones who knew how the system worked, an invention which Chimera Industries had no recognition over, or any proper knowledge of it worked, even though her academy had a major partnership with the leading global company.

"Ah, of course", replied Ms Takahashi.

The Principal then pulled out a wire from her draw, and plugged it into the UPad on her desktop. She then plugged the wire into the cylindrical object, and then turned on the UPad. Once typing in the pass code, she then went onto an application, and once she did, a female face appeared on the touchscreen, and then said, "HELLO. I AM THE NEURO INTELLIGENCE TRANSISTOR REGISTRY OPTICAL A.I."

"Woah", went Ms Takahashi, adjusting her glasses.

"It's part of the new update to the system", said the Principal, before saying to the A.I. on her UPad, "Hello there. I'm Miss Toudou. I believe this is technically the first time we've ever spoken", it was true, though she had seen the prototype made by the computer designers back at the Chimera Industries facility in Osaka. Since the academy had struck a deal with the megacorporation, they had the pleasure of getting the first pieces of new hardware and technology to test out, before being put on the global market.

"CORRECT", said the A.I., "THEN, YOU MAY CALL ME... NITRO."

"Nitro?" the Principal asked in a curious tone, before chuckling and saying, "Ah, your creators gave you a nice name", the A.I.- Nitro- seemed to hesitate for a second, before the Principal continued, "Anyway, I need you to pull up the Avatars on the new students that came in, today. Last names are all 'Prometheus', so it should be easy to find them."

"AFFIRMATIVE", said Nitro, before disappearing from the screen. Seconds later, the cylinder on the desk began to open up, with the sides of it separating, and folding down, and a single circular object- the top of it- being held up by 2 thin metal arms. The object then flipped down, facing the front of the desk, and one by one, 4 beams of light shot out of the object, lighting up the floor in front of the desk, and one by one, showing the avatars of the Prometheans. This piece of technology that the Principal had was an advanced holographic projector, which was a prototype made by Chimera Industries (See what she meant?). She could've just summoned an ESB field and remotely brought up those avatars, but part of that deal that she was in was that she had to show off these new products, so this just seemed like the easiest thing to do.

One by one, the avatars of the Prometheans popped up in front of the desk. The first one that appeared was a chibi futuristic looking police robot, with a glowing green scythe and shield, and what looked like a rifle on it's back. The next avatar to appear had green hair, wore a black trench coat, with Spanish writing and symbols across it, and it welded a mace in it's left hand, and a strange looking knuckle buster in it's right. The next one to appear wore a hoodie with a bat image on the front, a mask, and welded a Katana sword.

The last one to appear, however, was the one that immediately caught the eye of both the Principal and Ms Takahashi. A split second afterwards, they both knew which avatar the other teachers had been talking about.

The last avatar was huge, by the standards of almost every other avatar, reaching up to the waist of an average sized person. Also unlike every other avatar seen before, which had chibi designs to them, this particular avatar was most realistically proportionate, with it's entire body looking much more human shaped, as opposed to the more smaller and childlike designs of the other avatars. Yet, it was also covered in burnt and battered armour, and looked rather bulky, with organic, pulsating blisters giving off an unnerving sense of flesh and blood underneath the armour, and crimson blood leaking out of those glowing red blisters, creating a small puddle on the ground, which was itself creating a holographic trail of steam. In the right hand, the juggernaut of an avatar held a strange looking war hammer, yet connected to it's right arm was a circular saw, connected to some sort of mechanical extension, perhaps a saw engine, while on the left arm, there was what looked like a glowing red war shield/minigun, which connected to a large circular object connected to it's back by a large ammo chain. On it's head, it wore a helmet, with a single glowing red visor, and a slit going down the middle of the helmet, and said slit looked to be stained with blood.

"Oh my- What the actual...?" Ms Takahashi didn't finish her sentence. She wasn't really sure what to say. This strange avatar looked like it wanted to jump up onto her and strangle her to death! She was just really... Unnerved, for lack of a better word.

The Principal herself was a slight bit unnerved, too, but not for the same reasons, though she didn't change her facial expression from a calm manner. Like said before, the engineers back at CI had made the Avatar System to spawn avatars based on one's own personality and psyche. The fact that the avatar of one of the new students at her academy had an avatar that looked like... that, made her very concerned for the safety of those in Class A. The same class that these new students would be in. For the first time in a while, the Principal was actually wondering as to wherever she'd done the right thing. She then spoke, "These new students. What of we know of them?"

Ms Takahashi was unaware of whom she was referring to, so she spoke, "Well, not much. What it says-"

"THERE IS LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE NEW STUDENTS-"

"Okay, A.I.'s gonna interrupt me. Okay, no, that's cool. I'm cool with that..."

"-BUT FROM WHAT WE DO KNOW, IS THAT THEY ARE LIVING IN FUMIZUKI CITY."

"Oh, well for how long have they been living in the city?" asked the Principal.

"INSUFFICIENT DATA, THOUGH I HAVE PULLED UP A POLICE REPORT MADE AS OF A FEW DAYS AGO, WITH CHARGES AGAINST A GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS MATCHING THEIR DESCRIPTIONS. IT WAS MADE BY THE OWNER OF A LOCAL SCRAPYARD, THOUGH IT WAS QUICKLY DROPPED."

"Well, what was the police report about?"

"CLASSIFIED INFORMATION."

"Hm?"

"CLASSIFIED INFORMATION."

"What do you mean by that?"

"THE POLICE REPORT HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. SOMEONE HAS PLACED THE INFORMATION AS CLASSIFIED, AND HAS HIDDEN IT BEHIND NUMEROUS FIREWALLS."

"Well, who classified it?"

"CLASSIFIED INFORMATION."

The Principal became concerned as she heard this. Whoever these new students were, someone was seriously going out of their way to make sure that they were kept under lock and key. Someone very important indeed.

* * *

ACCESSING...

ACCESSING...

DENIED

FILE #1041 DESIGNATED= CLASSIFIED

AUTHOR DESIGNATION= CLASSIFIED

"Well then, I'll have to look into that. Keep me updated on them", DESIGNATION= KAORU TOUDOU- FUMIZUKI ACADEMY FACULTY ROLE= PRINCIPAL.

RESPONSE= "AFFIRMATIVE"

UPAD DEACTIVATED

FUMIZUKI GAKUEN OFFICIAL WRITE UP ON NEW STUDENTS JOHN PROMETHEUS ANDRE PROMETHEUS JACK PROMETHEUS MATEUSZ PROMETHEUS

ACCESS GRANTED

REVIEWING...

INFORMATION OFFICIAL/VIABLE

CCTV FOOTAGE RECORDS

ACCESS GRANTED

REVIEWING...

...

NEW STUDENTS NOT FOUND

CCTV FOOTAGE NOT VIABLE

REPORT DESIGNATION #1 PROMETHEANS

SUBJECT OF REPORT= JOHN PROMETHEUS- ANDRE PROMETHEUS- JACK PROMETHEUS- MATEUSZ PROMETHEUS

EVIDENCE- FUMIZUKI GAKUEN OFFICIAL WRITE UP ON NEW STUDENTS JOHN PROMETHEUS ANDRE PROMETHEUS JACK PROMETHEUS MATEUSZ PROMETHEUS

JOHN PROMETHEUS- MALE- LIGHT-SKINNED- POSSIBLY BRITISH FROM USE OF LANGUAGE- NO IDENTIFIABLE ACCENT- HETEROCHROMIA- MUSCULAR BUILD ON A LEVEL HIGHLY UNCOMMON AMONGST HUMANS AGED 17 (BODILY BUILD FOUND AFTER INCIDENT #3 EARLIER TODAY)

ANDRE PROMETHEUS- MALE- LIGHT-SKINNED- SPANISH- GREEN HAIR- NO THERMAL READING ON RIGHT ARM

JACK PROMETHEUS- MALE- DARK-SKINNED- NIGERIAN- BLIND

MATEUSZ PROMETHEUS- MACHINE- MALE PROGRAMMING- HIGH THERMAL TEMPERATURE- HIGH ENERGY READOUT

CONFLICTING REPORTS VERIFYING

INSUFFICIENT DATA TO CONTINUE REPORT

REPORT DESIGNATION #1 END

SEARCHING LIVE CCTV FOOTAGE ACROSS FUMIZUKI CITY CCTV NETWORK

SEARCHING...

NEW STUDENTS OF FUMIZUKI GAKUEN NOT FOUND

CONCLUSION: CCTV FOOTAGE NOT VIABLE ON SUBJECT OF PROMETHEANS

SEARCHING...

4 STUDENTS FROM FUMIZUKI GAKUEN FOUND

NAME= AIKO KUDOU

NAME= TOSHIMITSU KUBO

NAME= MIHO SATOU

NAME= SHOUKO KIRISHIMA

SITUATION= AIKO KUDOU HAS FALLEN OVER- HER LEG IS SCRAPPED- BLOOD IS VISIBLE

AIKO IS SHOWING SIGNS OF PAIN

PAIN...

...

THIS A.I. IS CURIOUS

* * *

Akihisa walked past one of the sheds, the noise that was playing in his head drawing him closer to an unknown destination. Akihisa didn't know where it was leading him, but he knew it was somewhere close, seeing as how he got closer, the noise got just that little bit louder. That little bit more audible. He didn't know what the noise was, specifically, but he could take a rough guess. Somehow, with the noise in his head, he could somehow feel sadness coating it. Sadness, regret, anger, misery. He didn't know how, but he could just... feel it. He didn't know how to explain it, but he could feel all of the sadness and hurt that came with the noise. Whatever was making it, it was coated with the feelings of lost passion and regret.

Akihisa continued to walk past the many tool sheds- where one part of the massive ESB war not even an hour ago took place- but then stopped in place when he heard the noise again. Except it wasn't a singular sound. It was a never ending chorus. Now, he could tell what it was.

Someone was crying. Weeping, even.

Akihisa looked to one of the sheds. It was slightly open. As he approached the shed, the noise in his head stopped, only to now be replaced by the sobbing of a girl. She sounded like she was Akihisa's age.

Akihisa quietly creeped up to the shed, and slowly opened the door just a teensy bit, letting the light fill in the dark void of the room. Across the walls inside the shed, Akihisa could see various tools and equipment, like rakes, shovels, and pitchforks, leaning on the wooden walls, and on the floor, much smaller wooden and metal gardening tools, like trowels and hand spades, clutter the dirty ground.

However, at the back of the shed, sat a girl, curled up into a ball, crying her eyes out. Her skirt was dirtied from the dirt on the ground, and her hands were red and wet, most likely from tears. Her hair was messy, yet Akihisa could tell that her hair was twirled into ringlet pigtails, and was pumpkin orange coloured.

Shimizu. Shimizu Miharu. The girl, crying in the shed, was the strong, ruthless, and cruel Shimizu Miharu.

Akihisa was conflicted. He wasn't sure of what to do. One part of him- the nice part- wanted to ask what was wrong. He was naturally nice, what could he say? Some people have told him that that's a weakness, but he didn't think so. Besides, at the moment, Shimizu seemed so fragile. So helpless. Akihisa hated it when he saw people like this, and all he wanted to do when he saw people like this was help them move past that, whatever their problems, in anyway that he could.

On the other hand, this was Shimizu Miharu. The Shimizu Miharu. The same Shimizu who'd blackmailed him, who'd assaulted him on multiple occasions, who'd framed him for peeping into the girl's changing room, who'd tried to start a war between Class F and Class D just to make sure that he and Minami didn't sit together (He really didn't know why she'd start a war for something as pointless as that. She could've just asked), who'd tried to kill him multiple times for getting close too Minami, who'd tried to kill anyone for getting too close to Minami. She had a long list of crimes, and it's fair to say that Akihisa still felt bitter about all of that. Thank goodness she hadn't met Hazuki, otherwise he might have to put lolicon on that list.

Still though, earlier today, Shimizu had been a bit more tolerant of Akihisa being around, especially during the ESB war earlier today. To top that off, her attitude had shifted sharply. She seemed much more raw, and angry. A lot more, well, he figured that 'unbalanced' was the best word that he could lose. More still, she seemed to be focusing more on John than on Minami. Hell, earlier today Shimizu had actually told Minami to get lost. Minami. The same girl that she'd been chasing around ever since the beginning of the second year, maybe even longer. That really had to say something about her now.

Akihisa decided to go with his morals. She looked to be in need, and Akihisa wanted to help, as always. If there was anything he'd actually learnt over his time in Fumizuki, it was to not hold onto grudges for too long. It was pointless to do so. Forgive and forget, and all that? Besides, if having a few injuries meant him walking out on someone, then he would've walked out on this entire academy ages ago.

Akihisa slowly opened the door with a creak, letting the inside of the shed light up. Shimizu noticed this, and looked up from her curled up position, her face red, and covered with what looked like a mixture of tears and sweat, along with a slight hint of dust, given off from the shed. She looked at Akihisa, and her face turned to a tearful scowl (There she is. Back to hating him). She wiped away the tears on her face, smudging the dirt, and spoke, "W-what do you want?" her voice stuttering and quivery.

"Um, well, I heard you crying", began Akihisa, "And I-"

"W-what? You came to pity me? S-save it. Do us both a fucking favour and g-get lost."

Well, she hasn't lost her trademark 'Bitch in sheep's clothing' quirk, that much is certain.

"I'm not here to pity you", replied Akihisa.

"Then what?" sarcastically asked Shimizu, her tone no longer quivery and stuttered, indicating that she was regaining her composure, "You wanna see me at my lowest fucking point? Come to get payback for all the shit I've thrown at you? Vell guess vat, I'm right fucking here!" her accent had now changed as her anger seemingly grew, sounding faintly Russian. Akihisa could tell because he'd heard the accent from all of the COD games that he'd played. Shimizu continued, "On vy ass, on de ground, vith a face vich I assume is as red as a fucking tomato! So come on! Hit me! Do vhatever it is you vish to do!" she then started to calm down, and then just cuddled her legs, her head pointing downwards, her voice reduced to a whisper, "Just get it over vith-"

"I wanna help you."

Shimizu looked up at Akihisa, her expression changed from a scowl to a confused stare, as she said, "Vat?"

Akihisa then entered the shed, and sat down on his knees, looking at Shimizu, with a silly smile on his face, "You look sad, and I wanna help you not be sad."

Shimizu shook her head, and looked at Akihisa, seemingly trying to make sure that she wasn't in delirium, "You, Yoshii Akihisa, the boy I've been bullying- the boy I've blackmailed, threatened, framed, hunted, and almost killed on multiple occasions- you want to help me? Me?" her accent had reverted back to it's normal sound, now, and her voice had recovered.

"Yes."

"You want to help me?"

"Yes."

"...You... want to help... me?"

"Yes."

Shimizu just looked at Akihisa, with an utterly confused look on her face, and then looked down at her knees again, placing her hands on the back of her head, and rubbing it for a few moments, before going, "Are you okay? Do you have, like, a concussion or something? Did you get hit in the head and get a concussion?"

"I'm fine, Shimizu", then again, he did wake up in the infirmary earlier today, so that might've been a contributing factor.

"You're obviously not", said Shimizu, before going, "Why the hell would you want to help me? Why? I mean, I've done so much bad shit to you ever since the start of the school year?" Don't you hate me-"

"Yes."

Shimizu looked up at him, her head tilted to the side, and a really confused glance on her face. She really didn't seem to expect Akihisa to come up with such a blunt answer, especially with such an innocent look on his face.

Akihisa continued, "Yeah, I do hate you. I hate you for all of the crap you've put me through. I hate you for all of the crap that you've put my friends through. I hate you 'cause you're a generally terrible person. I hate you because you somehow think that all men are evil-"

"Not all", muttered Shimizu, "But most..."

Akihisa didn't hear her. He just continued, "-I hate you because you stalk one of my friends on a regular basis. I hate you because you're a manipulative little woman. I hate you because you've hurt me on a regular basis, and I hate you because you just a bitch in general", Akihisa let his words hang in the air for a few moments, letting them sink into Shimizu, before continuing, "But, one of the things that I hate more that you, is seeing people sad. Hate it. Just... just can't stand it. And right now, you're sad. Unhappy, and all of the other words. And when someone is sad, then what else can you do other than help them?" Shimizu seemed utterly perplexed by Akihisa's flawless logic (At least, he thought so), so he continued, "That, and the fact that I've learnt to forgive and forget. It might take a while, at least, with you, but in time, all wounds can heal."

"...That was poetic."

"I dabble in wise words, sometimes. Even if I don't understand any of it."

Shimizu rolled her eyes at that last statement, but then said in a firm voice, "You're wrong, though. You're very, very wrong. Not all wounds heal. At least not the physical ones. The ones up here", she pointed to her head as she said this, "Those don't heal. The scars I got, they'll never heal."

"Is that why you're sad?" asked Akihisa.

"No. God no", said Shimizu, before whispering, "Sebastian..."

"What?"

"It's Sebastian. He's... Sebastian's why I'm upset. He's the only reason."

"Um, who's Sebastian?"

"John. He's calling himself John now."

 _John? The new guy in Class A?_ thought Akihisa, _he used to be called Sebastian? More importantly, what did he do to Shimizu? I mean, earlier today, during the ESB war, I could see that there definetly seemed to be some sort of familiarity between them, but I didn't think that Shimizu was so affected by this_ , "Well, did you know Joh-... Sebastian? Did you know him?"

"K-knew him?" Shimizu began to stutter again, and tears began to well up in her eyes once again, "Knew him?! I-I-I loved him! I loved him so much, and he...", she stopped, seemingly remembering an event long ago, before saying, "I loved him, so, so much."

Akihisa suddenly began to understand, just a little bit more, "You... loved him?"

"... I think I still do."

"But, I thought you loved Minami."

She seemed to instinctively flinch at this, before saying, "Yeah, I do. I do love her. I love her so fucking much."

"So... you're in love with 2 people?" now Akihisa was genuinely confused.

"...Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah I think I am. I think I love them both the same. But I hate Sebastian- I hate John so much at the same time. I hate him I hate him I hate him I hate him I fucking hate him..." Shimizu began to breath quickly and heavily for a few moments, tears rolling down her cheeks, before calming down, and dropping her head back down to her knees.

Akihisa looked at the girl before her, and really didn't know what else to feel other than pity, even if she didn't want it. He felt so sad for Shimizu, even if he still sort of hated her for all of her other deeds. She seemed so vulnerable. So fragile. So unlike the Shimizu Miharu that he knew. The Shimizu Miharu that he knew was brash, manipulative, fiery, and generally sociopathic (Then again, so were an unnerving amount of people in the academy). This Shimizu Miharu was fragile, vulnerable, and emotionally barely held together.

This could be a trap. This very much could be a trick set up by Class D to weaken him for whatever reasons.

But to Akihisa, it didn't really matter. Not right now. And if this was a trick, then Shimizu was a really convincing actor.

Akihisa got up onto his feet, brushing away the dirt that had collected onto him, walked over to Shimizu, and held his hand out to her. Shimizu noticed this, and looked up to Akihisa, a blank stare forming on her face. After a long few seconds, Shimizu gave off a slight smirk, and said, "You're too nice for your own good."

"I like to think of it as a strength."

"Well, it just makes you a bigger idiot than you already are", she said, before reaching out, and grasping hold of Akihisa's welcoming hand.

 _It's red hot_ , Akihisa thought. It was like trying to touch an open fire with your bare hands. Yet Akihisa did not fret, nor did he hesitate. He was on a set path now, and he wasn't backing down. Still, the embrace felt... oddly familiar. Like it was a distant memory, lost to him long ago. Akihisa could remember this feeling. He'd felt it earlier, back in the infirmary, when he first met John. It was a sense of nostalgia, with the hints of a distant encounter, though when that meeting happened was lost to him. He decided to push this feeling of Deja Vu to the back of his mind, as he helped Shimizu up. As the orange haired girl tried to brush the dirt off of her clothes, but only succeeding in smudging her hands and clothes even more, Akihisa asked, "So, what can I do for you?"

"What?" asked Shimizu. She didn't seem to have heard him. Probably too focused on trying to clean herself off.

"I'm hear to help you out. How can I help you out?"

"Hm", Shimizu tapped her fingers against her chin, lost in deep thought. After a long 30 seconds, she said, "Well, the first thing that we'd need to do is figure out why Sebastian- John, I guess- and the others are here. Samuel, Kyle, and Diego, but I guessed they've changed their names now, like Sebastian."

 _Samuel, Kyle, and Diego?_ thought Akihisa, _She's probably referring to the other guys that John hangs out with_.

"However, we- as in I- can't really just ask any of them for any answers, as since Sebastian is probably going to be avoiding those questions, and by extension us, the others probably will too."

"Maybe we could surprise them. Like, corner them, or something", wondered Akihisa out loud.

"That's probably not going to work", said Shimizu, "I know Samuel. He would literally be able to hear us a mile away."

"Um, which one is-"

"The blind one. Jack, I guess it is now."

"Oh", _seems everyone's going by a new name, these days_.

"Hm, actually, I spoke to Samuel earlier. Before the ESB war started."

Ha, see Yuuji, I'm not the only one who calls it that!

"He seemed pretty open about talking to me, so perhaps the others would be a bit more forthcoming as well. But from what I can tell, if we actually try to get an answer out of Sebastian, I don't think Samuel's going to intervene."

"So, we just need to corner him, or any of them, for that manner!" Akihisa proclaimed unnecessarily loudly.

"In a manner of speaking, yeah. Something along those lines."

"So", began Akihisa, "How do we do that?"

Shimizu pondered for a bit, before saying, "...Well, I suppose we could use the same routine that I've been using with Honey. Minami. Either one."

"Um?" began Akihisa, with a nervous smile, as he rubbed the back of his head, "Isn't that technically stalking?"

"Not if you get caught", replied Shimizu.

"Um, okay."

"Alright then, we can get started... tomorrow, because I need a wash."

"Yeah, probably", said Akihisa, "I mean, you are covered in dirt."

Shimizu grunted in response, and then grabbed Akihisa's wrist, dragging him out of the shed (Almost tripping up along the way), as she said, "Come on, idiot! We've got spying- I mean observing- to do! Also, I need a shower, and you need to go back to whatever box or dingy filth covered backstreet you live in!"

 _Well, she still hates me, I see_ , thought Akihisa, as he wondered to himself, _What kind of mess have I just gotten myself into?_

* * *

Tick tock tick tock.

The clock kept ticking.

The people kept talking.

Akane kept thinking.

She kept desiring.

She kept loving.

"Akane."

Akane shook her head slightly, in response. She looked to her left, to see Mayura looking at her. Short pink hair. Blue eyes. Pale skin. Flat chest. Girl. Akane hummed in response, "Hm?"

"We were talking remember. Hiromi asked you about the strength of your guys in Class A, but you seemed to just be zoned out."

Akane Higa looked around her. She was in Class D. Class E was still damaged, and a few were in there cleaning up, like Anzu, and Chōnan. She was currently surrounded by multiple persons from both Class D, A, and E. Most notably being Hiromi, Yoshiko, Ayumi, Genji, and Mayura.

"Oh, right, sorry. I must've started daydreaming", she replied, evidently aware that she wasn't really sorry, even if she wore the face of such, "What was the question again?"

Hiromi spoke. Short brown hair. Brown eyes. Slightly tanned skin. C Cup. Girl. Her words were slightly exasperated, but not impolite, "What's the strength of your group in Class A? If we're gonna be working together, then we'll need to know the full strength of each other, so that we can use that to our advantage."

"Ah, right", Akane began, feigning embarrassment by scratching the back of her head, before saying, "Well, the only ones who'd actually follow me are, well, standing in this room right now", a few of them- part of the self proclaimed 'reformists'. A quaint name- waved, "There's about a good dozen of us. Although Kinoshita and her inner circle don't have that many followers themselves. Sure, they outnumber us, but not by a lot. There's also the case of everyone else in Class A. I know of Bando and his little circle (I'm assuming you've heard of them), who'd probably side with Kinoshita, because of his utter obsession with her, there's the Harrisons, but knowing them, they probably won't stand with anyone, and just stay out of this whole conflict when it goes down."

"Wait, didn't they fight with us today?" spoke Genji. Short dark blue hair. Blue eyes. Tanned Skin. Male, "You know, against Classes B and C?"

Akane crafted a gentle smile for herself, hiding away her disgust for the Harrisons' cowardice, "Well, yeah, but they probably only did it because they were either bored, or that they were showing that new batch of students the ropes, so they're probably off the list."

"Speaking of which", spoke Yoshiko. Greyish blue hair. Ponytail. Purplish maroon eyes. B Cup. Girl, "The new guys in Class A? What do you make of them?"

Akane thought back to the 3 new students and their pet robot that had arrived earlier today. 'The Prometheans', everyone in Class A had taken to calling them. Well, at least those whom served Akane, like the obedient little dogs that's they were. However, these new students were different. Very different, indeed. These new students seemed much more dangerous than everyone else in the academy. Well, as dangerous as any new student could be. For all Akane knew, they were all bark and no bite. However, did that mean that she scared of them? God no. Obviously. If they knew better, then eventually they'd fall in line at her feet. Still though, she had to keep on her toes around them, seeing as she knew next to nothing about them. So, she responded truthfully to Yoshiko, "I don't know. I've got nothing on them. I don't know wherever they'd stand with us, or with Kinoshita, or not fight with anyone, or... well, I don't know. They've only been here a day, so..."

"No no, it's fine", said Yoshiko, "It's fine. I never expected you to know anything about them", Akane was pretty sure that was a hidden insult. She liked her. Yoshiko continued, "I'm not sure about them either. I mean, the robot- Mateusz, I think his name was- seems pretty eccentric, and kind of an asshole, for a robot. That Andre guy seems pretty ballsy, what with standing up to the Ironman like he did, and all. The blind one, Jack, is... there, I guess. And the tall one with the mismatched eyes is, um... I don't know, moody, or something", she looked around to the people around her, whom were in turn giving her sarcastic looks, "What? What? He was moody. He- don't you start too, Genji!"

The door to the Class D room then opened up, revealing 2 Class D students- Ichirō- Brown hair. Pig tails. Pale brown eyes. Light brown skin. D Cup. Girl- and Kenta- Dark brown hair. Bags under eyes. Green eyes. White skin. Male- who then entered the room. Following them were several Class F boys, including some of the famed Triple F. The one in front of the small Class F group seemed the most prominent. Short, slick black hair. Dark eyes. White skin. Male. He seemed nervous, and unsure of himself. Good. Those qualities were good ones to manipulate. He started off, "Um, h-hey guys. Wassup?"

"...", no one in the room replied.

"Um, tough... crowd? I guess..."

"Er, who're you?" asked Hiromi.

"Oh, um, I'm Nishimura Yuuichirou", said the boy, who nervously put his hands together in front of him, and twiddled his thumbs together. Before everyone could collectively lose their shit, he then said, "Before you ask, yeah, I'm... I'm related to the Ironman himself. So, yeah, it's... yeah."

"Wait! Wait! Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wwwwwaaaaaiiiiiitttttA!" went Hiromi, running out of breath after repeating herself a few times, before going, "You- you're related to Ironman? Ironman? As in Mr Picks-up-people-by-the-dozens man!"

"Um, yeah", said Yuuichirou, "I mean, we don't just have the last names for no reason, I guess. I mean, I know there're always outliers, and people who do have last names but aren't... related, or anything, but... but yeah. I'm related, to, um, to Mr Nishimura", he stayed quiet for a few moments, before saying, "He's- he's my uncle. Yeah. He's... he's my uncle..." he muttered that last part.

He seemed socially awkward and uncomfortable. Hm.

"We found him vacating the sports hall", said Kenta, "As well as the rest of Class F."

"Maybe they were gonna punch stuff!" pronounced Ichirō loudly, pointing her finger into the air.

"What is with you and your obsession with punching things?" calmly said Kenta, before saying to everyone else present, "Yeah, we found him leaving the sports hall. Heard him talking about a revolution, or something. I thought he might be a good helping hand for us."

"When he said that he was related to Not Tony Stark Iron Man, I didn't believe him! So I punched him! But he fell over and clutched the place where I punched him! So he must not be related to Ironman! Because I once punched Ironman, but he caught it with his fist, and then I ended up crying myself to sleep that night after he took me to a room, and did things that I can't remember!"

"Translation: He took her to the disciplinary room, and gave her a stern lecture about not punching teachers. And he also gave her detention for a week, and wouldn't let her go to her boxing club. Which I think she has a fetish for. Which was why she cried that night. Absolutely no sexual activity or innuendos whatsoever."

"What's a feetish?"

"We'll talk about it when you're older."

"Okay!"

"I'm... honestly amazed that she got into Class D", Akane heard Genji mutter.

"D for D cup!"

"How is that girl still alive?" Yoshiko quietly asked.

"It's because I got huge boobs!" Ichirō loudly proclaimed.

"Nope. It's because I'm basically her carer", said Kenta, "I seriously need to be getting paid for the amount of work that I do."

"Um", went Yuuichirou, "Should I just... go, or something, or, er, should I-"

"Wait, no, just, no no", said Hiromi, "Um, what were you doing with Class F, and, stuff?"

"Oh, er, well, I was, um", he stayed quiet for a few moments, looking like he was thinking of a response, before saying, "I was trying to rally everyone in Class F, to, I don't know, prove to Sakamoto that we could win something ourselves... or something along those lines."

"Oh, really?" said Yoshiko, with a little smile on her lips. Genji gave her a weird look, to which she whispered, "What? He's adorable."

"Mm!"

"Genji! Not in the sexy way! God no!"

"Hm, well, that's a... confidence booster", said Yuuichirou, looking to have heard her.

"Oh! Um... I...", Yoshiko was immediately embarrassed, as she buried her face in her hands, a red blush on her cheeks.

"Can we please move on before this meeting devolves into a battle of lovelorn whatevers!?" went Hiromi loudly, catching everyone's attention.

"Do you even know what lovelorn means?" asked a random Class A student.

"Um, no, but did I... did I use it in the right context?"

"I, guess so. I mean, maybe."

I- No, getting distracted! Moving on!" Hiromi looked to Yuuichirou, and asked, "You. You said you were trying to rally Class F to a single goal, right?"

"Oh, yeah, something along those lines", replied Yuuichirou.

"Well, did you succeed?"

"Hm?"

"Did you unite everyone in Class F behind you?"

Yuuichirou looked behind himself for a few seconds, before saying, "Well, there aren't that many people behind me, so-"

"No, moron! That's not what I meant!" loudly went Hiromi, "Did you get everyone to, I don't know, elect you as their boss or something!?"

"Oh, that's what you- oh. Sorry. Um, well, no, to your question. No, not really."

"I-I'm sorry, what does not really mean?"

"Well, we've- as in almost everyone in Class F, save for Sakamoto and his lot- sort of agreed on a democracy or council kinda thing", nervously said Yuuichirou, "But as of now, it, um, sort of not really working out... or something."

"Er, what?"

"It's all a big, whole change thing, okay? It's- it's a bit rocky, but it'll work out, and... and all..." Yuuichirou trailed off, looking like he wasn't particularly sure of himself, "But they'll listen to me! Eventually! I've just... I've just got to prove it to them. Then they'll listen to me..."

So he's socially awkward, uncomfortable in certain situations, unsure of himself, and has aspirations of being a leader...

Good. Akane knew that those types of people were some of the easiest ones to use.

Hiromi looked at Kenta and Ichirō, and asked, "You 2 thought that he'd be a good help, and brought him and his little group of buddies behind him here? Seriously?"

"Hey, like I said, the guy was talking about a whole revolution, and stuff!" defensively went Kenta, "And again, like I said I thought he'd be a good helping hand! The more the merrier, and all that!"

"And I wanted to-"

"Ichirō, please, for the love of god, don't say punching stuff!"

"But you told me back when we first met that lying is wrong!"

"I can't tell if that's intentional sass or not!"

"Oh would everyone please just SHUT UP!" the yells of Hiromi echoed throughout the room, catching everyone's attention. Even Akane's; it was rare that something could catch her by surprise. Hiromi loudly continued, "For the love of god, people, this... pointless banter is getting us nowhere! We're suppose to be planning on how to take out Class A- No, taking out Yuuko, for god's sake! You know: the big bad! The 1%! The final boss! Other things along those lines! But instead of that, ever since we got here, we've just been dicking around, wasting my time, your time, and everybody else's time!"

"Hiromi's right!" called out Mayura, with her hand's on her hip, and her face in a pout, "We need to be figuring out how to beat Yuuko and her lot, not fall apart at the seems just because of some stupidly trivial arguments and empty talk!"

"Thank you! Thank you!" repeated Hiromi, as she held her arms out in the pink haired girl's general direction, as if to emphasise her point, "See! See! Why couldn't you all be more like our lovely lady Mayura over there! She knows what's up!"

Akane could see Mayura blush at Hiromi's exaggerated comment, though she tried to hide it.

"You know", said someone from the Triple F, who stood outside of the classroom, "There's actually an subreddit on, well, Reddit, that's all about taking down the 1% of our society. Very popular. Lot's of people across the world actively use it. Call themselves the Burners."

"Well, I'm sure that with a name like the 'Burners', they're all a lovely group of people", said Hiromi, "Now, are they important to this meeting or not?"

"Um, well, no, I guess not. I'd just thought I'd mention it."

While they were all talking, Akane slowly made her way to Yuuichirou, and, ignoring the glares of the Triple F outside the door, wrapped her arm around the smaller boy, and said, "Hey there, buddy."

Yuuichirou was surprised by this, and, with a nervous blush on his face, asked, "Um, er, h-hey there. Um, who-"

"I'm Akane Higa", Akane smiled, while Yuuichirou looked at her, with a slightly startled look on his face. In Japan, it was the norm for strangers, not too close friends, and acquaintances to introduce themselves with their last names first, as using their first names was a sign of closeness between people, although nowadays, in a society that was becoming more secular and moving further away from tradition and more towards modernisation, this unspoken rule was wearing off in the younger generation, though there were still those whom believed in it. Akane continued, "You're Yuuichirou Nishimura, right?"

"E-er, yeah, I-I am. That's my name, and stuff? W-why'd you ask?"

Akane feigned an innocent smile and giggle, and then quietly said, "Oh, nothing much, really. I just wanna talk."

* * *

Follow them. That's what Yuuji had said, _"Follow them, and find out how they could pose a threat to us, since Akihisa isn't exactly a reliable source, is he?"_

Obviously, Kouta was a bit hesitant to do this, as they neither girls, or cute. Also, 3 of them had beaten up the entire FFF in a short amount of time, but that wasn't as important.

Still though, he did agree to it, in the end. Who was he to say no to a collection of eroboo- he meant important study guides.

So, there he was, sitting in the trees, in his ninja uniform, next to a thin road, that lead out of Fumizuki city, and in a direction which Kouta forgot the name of. He'd never really paid attention in geography lessons. He'd never really paid attention in any lessons apart for physical education. None of them had any cute girls or Hideyoshi in cute outfits, or anything relating to cute girls or Hideyoshi in cute outfits.

Still, at this moment, it didn't matter, though it didn't mean that he hadn't removed it from his mind. His mission right then and there was the current priority. Follow the new students, and find out how they could possibly pose a threat to Yuuji's plans to take down Class A.

So, he did just that. He followed the 2 of them, and watched them, his camera taking pictures of them, at every angle possible, and his notepad open, taking notes of what they were saying. At least, the important parts between the 2's conversation.

"Um, what's in the wagon anyway?" asked the green haired one- Prometheus Andre, he had introduced himself as- as Kouta saw him gesture to a pull along wagon, with a tarp covering it, that the tall one with the hair strands over his left eye, and mismatching eyes was pulling behind him.

"Oh, you know", began the tall one, as he looked to Prometheus Andre, "The stuff that you and the others had got from that fight which you said you had. The Warhammer, the scythe, Riley's rifle, the katana-"

"You took Riley's rifle?"

"Yep. I think he dropped it during that whole summoning war madness. I figured that it shouldn't be left at a school, of all places, so, there. Other than that, the katana, that sign that Meteuz had picked up, the mace, (I think Amy kept her sickle) and Kyl- fuck, Mateuz, I mean. Augh."

"¿Viejos hábitos mueren difícilmente, eh?

"Oh don't you start."

 **"嗨, 闭嘴!"** said a robotic voice in a language that Kouta didn't recognise, before the rectangular head of the new student's robot popped out of the tarp on the wagon, and then shot it's thin arm out in quick secession.

So that's where the 3rd one went.

"Y ¿por qué hay callarse, Mateuz?" went Prometheus Andre.

 **"Because guess who's on the telly?"** went the robot, as it tapped the side of it's head. Suddenly, a bright green light shone out of the side of it's head, and a flat green projection appeared right in front of the 2 new students. It was first just a glowing green, flat projection, but then colours and outlines were added in, showing a Birdseye view of a stage, with what looked like an information column on the bottom of it, like you see on a news channel.

Kouta was completely taken back by this. The robot could project holographic images?

Could it project naked cute ladies?

Kouta's nose started automatically bleeding as he thought of this possibility. Luckily he brought extra blood bags with him everywhere he went. He should really remember to thank his uncle for letting him use all of the blood bags that he did. Now, if only he would stop pestering and teasing him about having a 'thing' for Aiko Kudou.

Like he has a thing for that girl...

"Okay, not seeing what's so special about wait a minute", began the tall one with the mismatched eyes, "Is that... is that Riley?"

 **"Yep!"** went the robot, in an enthusiastic tone, **"It's amazing! We're in the same Academy as a celebrity!"**

"Well, now the poor chico is really gonna be famous", said Prometheus Andre, "And by the looks of it, he really doesn't want to be there", he then looked to the robot, "Besides, man, we're suppose to be keeping quiet, remember? Settling down, and all that. No more stupid danger."

 **"Well, I know. I know. But, there might be a TV crew in the academy that'd be making a documentary on Riley now that he's famous, and maybe his hot sister as well, and when that happens, I wanna be there so that all the ladies across the world can see ma sexy bod'!"**

"Okay, 1, ew", said Prometheus Andre, with a hint of disgust over his face, "2, you really want a bunch of sleezebag women over you? They'll just chew you up and spit you out! That's all they're good for!"

 **"And what about Raven, then? And Natalia? What about them?"** the robot seemed to be pretty offended by what Prometheus Andre was saying.

"...They're the exceptions, not the rule."

 **"Okay, Andre, I- we- know you have your prejudice thing and all, but if you could please respect my life choices-"**

"1, if you bring a bunch of bitches over to our place, I will murder them! 2, your 'life choices' could very much show the world where we're trying to start over again!"

"I don't know", said the tall one, "Could be fun."

"Oh don't you start!" went Prometheus Andre, "I knew you'd be like this!"

"Like what? Like what? What would I be like?"

 _They didn't seem to get along too well_ , thought Kouta, as he snapped a picture of them. Thank goodness he had the flash off, otherwise the 3 of them might've noticed him if they were paying enough attention. Then again, he was the great Muttsurini. The Voyeur. The Ninja Pervert! Emphasis on Ninja. The chances of them finding him in the trees were almost impossible to-

Wait.

There were 3 of them.

Weren't there 4?

"Hello."

Kouta barely had anytime to react before something sharp sliced across his back, tearing into his ninja outfit, and slicing the skin. Kouta stifled a yell of pain and surprise, and flipped himself around, only to see something silver and shiny slice into his chest, cutting his black clothing, and drawing blood. The slice also hit his notebook, slicing it in 2, destroying it. His pen was also cut in 2 in the single slice, sending ink flying into his face, and into his right eye, pretty much blinding him.

Kouta placed his hand over his eye, trying to wipe away the ink. This only made it worse, as his efforts only smudged the ink, making it worse. He closed his eyes instinctively for a few moments, as he came to terms with the pain, before opening his left eye, to try and see his attacker.

Where was he? Kouta did not know. He was all alone in the trees, as he felt droplets of blood trickle from his cuts, and hear drops of rain landing against the leaves of the trees and bushes. He knew not where his attacker was, or how he knew of where Kouta was in the first place. Kouta didn't have the reputation of 'Ninja Pervert' without merit. He had honed his skills for as long as he could remember. For someone to just sneak up on him would be completely laughable-

{SLAM}

Kouta saw a flash of black, and felt something hard hit his stomach, with enough force to send him flying back, out of the trees, and into the road. His back hit the road, scrapping his already bleeding slash, and bruising his skin. Kouta was too winded from the punch to yell out in pain from being slammed in the stomach, and onto the road. He threw up onto the ground next to him, the pain in his stomach too much to bear at the moment, as he felt the rain from the storm clouds above stain his clothes and hair, and mix in with his blood.

He began to breathe heavily, trying to recover his winded breath. He went to get himself up, but found that he was quite dizzy. He must've hit his head. He tried to get up, but stopped himself when he head the sound of metal scrapping against the wet concrete of the road. He wasn't really sure of what he was feeling at the moment. Fear? Anger? Confusion? Dizziness? Probably a mixture of the all.

Then, the scraping sound was replaced by a quick slicing noise, with a collection of pebbles colliding with Kouta's face. He tried to reach for a smoke bomb that he had in his pocket, but a foot quickly slammed against his wrist, forcing his hand back down.

Kouta, through his fuzzy vision and only currently operable eye, looked up, to see someone looking down to him, with chocolate brown skin, a grey hoodie with a red skull on the front, sunglasses, and a walking stick in hand.

The 4th new guy? The blind one? Kouta remembered him introducing himself to him, Yuuji, and Hideyoshi before they kicked them out of Class F. Prometheus Jack, he'd said his name was. Yet he had remembered this one being blind, since the signs of it were pretty obvious, even though he never said. Yet, this blind boy had somehow been able to not only find him, but also sneak up on him, and incapacitate him with just 2 hits?! And keep himself from being seen?!

Kouta tried to kick his feet up to try and crawl away, but felt something long, metal, and cold wrap around his ankles. He looked down, to see a thin metal tendril curl itself around his legs, tightening them together, preventing him from moving them. His eyes travelled down the length of the metal tendril, to see that it was connected to the arm of the new students' robot, who was now out of the pull along wagon, and standing fully upright, it's single, glowing green eye staring down at the blue haired boy. Besides him, stood the tall boy and Prometheus Andre, both looking down on Kouta; the tall boy had a smirk on his face, while Prometheus Andre had a dull look of disappointment.

"Well hello there", said the tall boy, as he walked over, and knelt down besides Kouta, the rain now falling heavily, though he didn't seem to care, "I think I remember you from... Yeah, you were in that Class F room back at the academy earlier today, weren't you? You had the, um, t-the camera and everything. Though I don't think I ever got your name."

"...", Kouta didn't give a response, both out of defiance, and out of the fact that he was still too dazed to give a proper reply.

"Ah, the quiet one, I see", said the tall boy, "Eh. Whatever. I was going to ask you why you were following us- Yes, I was aware, by the way. Thank my brother right there for that- but I think we both know the answer to that, don't we?"

Kouta still didn't reply. He just used his free hand to wipe his face of vomit and ink. He thought about spiting in the tall boy's face for a second, but then figured that that was a pretty stupid idea.

The tall boy, after a few moments, then patted his knees with his hands a few times, before taking off his jumper, even though it was raining (Not that it would really help), and tossed it onto Kouta, saying, "You know what- I've got a spare back at my place, before you wonder- you know what, let's make us- let's make us a bit of a deal: You take this, and don't follow me or my brothers anymore, and we'll pretend this little incident never happened. And trust me when I say, we'll know if you're following us. Capiche?"

Kouta was silent still. He kept his exterior neutral, not betraying his own thoughts. After a short few seconds, that still felt like it took way too long, the Ninja Pervert took hold of the jumper that was given to him, and slowly got himself up. Once he was sitting up right, he saw that the 3 new students and their pet robot start walking off, back in the direction that they were going towards before. Pulling himself up onto his feet, and holding the oversized jumper over his head, he looked back to the group of students, whom weren't even looking his way.

Kouta considered continuing to spy on them, thinking that a collection of precious reference books may not be worth losing. Then, he decided that he could just look them up on the internet, and get the reference books another way. Besides, he already had the pictures on his camera of them, so that might suffice-

His camera.

Kouta looked to where he originally was: In the treelines. Where was his camera? He tried to run towards the treeline, but found that his back still hurt from the cut, and from landing flat on the ground. Thank goodness he didn't break anything. At least, he didn't think that he broke something. He'd have to check with his uncle and his own personal knowledge later on. Anyways, he lightly jogged to the treeline, and looked for his camera, parting the foliage for a better view.

There.

It didn't look broken at first glance, but upon a closer inspection, Kouta could see that the lens was cracked, and part of the plastic case of the camera was also cracked and dented. Oh well, that could be fixed. Kouta's cameras had been broken before, and they would most likely be broken against. It wasn't like he hadn't fixed them before. However, the external damage was irrelevant, at this time. What did matter was if the pictures survived.

He picked up the camera, and looked at it. It never turned off. Good. He pressed the picture library button- yeah, he still used one of those cameras. He could've brought one of those better quality, high tech cameras, but this one- 'Old Reliable', as he had come to call it- had a bit more sentiment to him than one would think. Okay, now just need to find the pictures of them...

No, that's a picture of a girl's breasts...

No, that's also a picture of a girl's breasts...

That's a picture of a girl's undergarments...

That's the same girl, at a different angle...

That's Hideyoshi...

That's also Hideyoshi...

Still Hideyoshi...

Is that another- No, wait, that's Hideyoshi again...

Not that he was complaining...

This went on for several minutes, before he came to the recent photos.

There he was, now he just needed to...

Wha...

Where were they?

They weren't in the photos.

The new students weren't in the photos.

This didn't make any sense. Kouta specifically remembered them being in the photos. He remembered them being at that intersection, and he remembered them being near that bus stop, and he definitely remembered them just them, walking down that road!

How the hell was he going to explain that to Yuuji? That they just magically disappeared from his photos like vampires? And how was he suppose to get his-

A thunderclap broke him out of his thoughts. He looked up through his only good eye. Oh yeah, there was a storm, wasn't there?

Damn. He'd have to figure this out later.

Kouta grabbed his camera, pulled his newly given jumper for an umbrella over his head, jumped up into the trees, and began to leap through them, using his ninja skills to traverse the now soaked trees, despite his wounds.

He had been so caught up in his own world, for the last several minutes, that he never noticed Prometheus Jack standing over him on a tree branch, shadowing him. He especially didn't notice when the blind boy leaped back down from the trees, and ran through the heavy rain to rejoin his brothers.

* * *

Koharu Higa looked at the pot that sat on a table next to her bedside. Inside it was a good amount of money, that was steadily growing every week. Sweet. Keep this up and by December, she'd have enough money to buy her mom that necklace that she wanted. Thank goodness that that guy from year 3 was able to... listen, to give her that money.

...

Sigh.

She didn't like what she did. The favours that she'd give to other students. She didn't like that kind of stuff. But, it was a means to an end. With these 'favours', she got power in Class A. She got people to do whatever she wanted. And she liked it when people grovelled at her feet. And if they gave her a bit of cash on the side, that's good too.

She supposed that she got that attitude from her... yeah.

Probably got his sadism as well, seeing how she got a kick out of seeing people she really didn't like get the stuffing out of them. It was why she hung around Bando a lot. He kicked the shit out of people, and she got her kicks.

Unfortunately, that wasn't always the case.

One such example were the Harrison siblings. At least, at certain times. Most of the time, they got the shit kicking that they deserved, but a few times, the Harrison sister would get away sometimes, and yesterday and today, the Harrison brother had escaped from them, with yesterday, Koharu had no idea how he got away, and today, he'd outsmarted her and her little group of 'friends'. Him. The Harrison brother. That idiot had outsmarted them. That idiot had outsmarted her.

Koharu didn't want to say his name. It would just remind him of her failure to teach him the lesson that he deserved.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day, and-

She ceased her trail of thought when she heard someone walk through her bedroom door. She had been facing away from the door, seeing as how her bedside table was facing the window on the opposite side of the room. Moments later, she felt her bed shift and move, and a single second later, she felt a pair of hot, wet arms wrap around her, and someone's soaked face bury itself in the back of her neck and head. She could feel the person's hot breath on her neck, as well as drips of water, and their soaking hands gently rubbed and dampened her still clothed skin. She hadn't taken her school clothes off yet.

Koharu knew immediately who this intruder was, "Akane, get off of me."

"Aw, why?" asked Akane in an almost childlike tone, "Aren't I allowed to hug my big sister?"

"For the love of God, Akane, get off of me."

"Why for the love of God?" almost whispered Akane, "Why not for the love of me?"

Koharu rolled her eyes, and pried Akane's bare arms off of her. She turned herself around on the bed, to see her younger twin sibling sitting naked on the bed cross legged. Judging from the fact that her bare skin was wet, and that there was also thin trails of steam coming off of her, it would seem that she'd just gotten out of a hot shower, and hadn't bothered to dry herself off. Koharu then said, "Get out of my room."

"Why?" asked Akane, a smile never leaving her face. Koharu was only partially sad that she only ever wore an honest smile around her.

"Because you're soaking my bed, and I don't want your germs all over me."

Akane's smile never faded, and she spoke in a singsong voice, "Aw, why not let me stay?" with every word, she rocked her head to one side, "I'm not hurting you."

"Again, you're soaking my bed, and I don't want your germs all over me", Koharu repeated, with more emphasis on her words this time.

Akane tilted her head to the side again, placed her hand on her older sister's knee, and went, "What's wrong with letting me stay? I just wanna spend time with-"

"Don't. Touch. Me", Koharu was slowly getting angrier, now, as the tone of her voice implied, "We're not friends. At this point, we're not sisters. You started up the reformists, and started spewing bullshit about a 'revolution' or something. You're not my sister. You're just someone I know", T _hat's not the reason why I disowned you. I did it for your sake, as well as my own. I did it because I love you, and I'm afraid of you as well_ , she got up and off of the bed, and began to walk out of the room, saying, "Now, seeing as you're out of the shower now, I'm going in myself. When I get out, I want you out of my room, immediately. Understand?" she didn't get a verbal response. Just a nod from her little sibling.

As Koharu turned her back on her younger sister, and walked out of her room, she didn't notice Akane giving her a wide, euphoric smile.

* * *

"Oh, c'mon, Aneue", said Hideyoshi, as he looked at the angry expression of her elder sister.

"Don't c'mon me!" yelled Aneue- that's Yuuko, in case anyone is wondering- whom was currently in just her underwear, seeing as how that was how she preferred to lounge around in the house, "My best reading material is gone, and I don't know where it is-"

"Are you sure you didn't just leave it downstairs?"

"Wha- what? If it was down there, don't you think I would've found it?" Aneue asked.

"Um, well, yeah, I mean, I haven't seen you look down-"

{PUNCH}

"I'VE ALREADY LOOKED DOWN THERE, IDIOT!" yelled Aneue, as Hideyoshi laid on the ground, nursing a bump on his head, "I was being sarcastic. I'm not sure why I expected that to go through your infinitesimal brain."

"Ow", muttered Hideyoshi, as he got himself up, before saying, "Is this because you've run out of ideas for your Yuri On Ice self insert smut fic which you are writing on Wattpad when YOU'RE NOT BREAKING MY WRIST AAAAAAGGGHHH!" Hideyoshi really didn't know why he never learnt.

"Oh my god! It's like you like getting punched!" sardonically went Aneue, as her hand squeezed Hideyoshi's wrist, "1: It's not smut! 2: Wattpad is a place of choose your own adventures and One Direction fetish dreams! I write on Fanficton. Net!"

"What's the difference! It's all smut anyway!"

"Well it's... I mean... hm", Aneue let go of her grip on her younger sibling's wrist, and tapped her finger against her chin, before rapidly shaking her head and yelling, "Wha- HEY! IT'S NOT ALL SMUT! Some fanfics are actually good! Have you never read Life Sentence, No Cellmate!"

"What?"

"Archive Of Our Own! Kylo/Hux slash! Look it up!"

Kylo/Hux? Like, the 2 guys from Star Wars?

Gay slash. No wonder Aneue liked it.

"Now where was my damn light novel?" muttered Aneue, as she stomped into her room. She seemed to be a bit more aggressive today.

It's a wonder Mother and Father haven't found out about this whole living situation. About Aneue punching him, now and then. He wondered how they would react. He and Aneue had been living together for some time, now, and he hadn't seen his parents for a while as well, so he wasn't too sure as to how they would actually respond.

He looked to Aneue's room, and then to nowhere in particular.

He also wasn't sure about how they'd all react about...

...

About him liking boys.

* * *

"Ah, shit!"

The exasperated, and slightly pained, sound of Diego sliced through the air, and the web of dripping and electric buzzing, like a knife through warm butter. Samuel held hold of the sound, using it as an anchor to guide him through the eternal darkness. He could hear sound bouncing and dancing around him, in an eternal ballet, which he used to find the walls and ceilings around him, negating the use of a walking stick, though his brothers had said that it would be better to use one in public, in order to blend in better as they began their life anew. Those same brothers had said before that how Samuel could navigate around properly was something called 'echolocation', like what a species of creature called bats used. Samuel had a different same for it, though: His second sight. He couldn't see anything, yet his second sight let him sense everything around him, marrying him to the sound, dancing in it's comforting embrace.

Samuel gripped the edge of a wall, but pulled his hand away, as he felt something sharp. He felt a sharp sliver of pain go down the palm of his hand, and a warm liquid wetted his hand, across the length of the pain. His second sight let him sense the edge of the wall. Something sharp was sticking out. Kyle had said that their new home was still a work in progress, so that meant that parts of their home were still damaged and broken. Samuel had said that they should've just gotten a regular home, but Ellis and the UN board had said that if they transferred a large sum of money to them immediately, then the wrong people may notice. It had to be a slow process: first, small sums of cash would be transferred into seemingly random bank accounts, which would then be transferred into over a dozen other proxy accounts, which would then be wired to a final bank account, being the new one that had been set up for the bothers in arms. However, from what Samuel had been told, this kind of thing took a long time to do, so money would be scarce for the time being.

Still though, Samuel had been impressed with the collective ingenuity of the brothers. Within a scrapyard, they had apparently made a tunnel home, 2 personal rooms, a living room/kitchen, a bathroom, a generator room and internal plumbing and electricity, all in a short amount of time, all the while being underground, near a scrapyard and dump. Granted they had the help of the robots that they had made, the burrow home was still very much a work in progress, and from what he had been told, there was a major lack of furniture, but still, that's part of the bonus of living near a scrapyard and dump: Recycling.

Samuel looked around the wall, to sense a familiar aura. Samuel had a way of sensing when people where around. Where they should be, he could just see their inner energy. Their aura. Each aura had a familiar sense, and right now, the aura in front of him was a bright glow, which encompassed an entire body -save for an arm- where the sound bounced off of him, against the darkness. This aura was on their knees, next to a wall, holding their left hand, and shaking it, while an object sat next to them, which smelt like burning metal and oxide fumes. There was also a slight hint of burnt flesh in the air.

This was Diego, muttering, "Ow", to himself repeatedly, and he blew on his finger, before saying, "Oh hey, Samuel- wait, no. It's Jack now. Sorry."

"Us 4 are alone in our new place of home", replied Diego, "There is no need for our names not our own."

"Er, yeah, okay", said Diego, as he got up, still nursing his finger, "You know, there are less... Oh, forget it."

Samuel was curious, "Less what?"

"Nothing."

"It was definitely something."

Samuel heard his brother in arms sigh, and then change the subject, "Hey, I'll come read to you, later. I've got to wait for one of the Guardbots to get back here with a jug of water for my flipping finger, and then finish welding this slab of metal onto the wall, and then I can come read to you."

"How long with that take?"

"Oh, about maybe 5 to 10 minutes-"

{CLUNK}

"-Oh wha- oh c'mon!... 15 to 20 minutes, now."

Samuel sighed, and went, "Why is Sebastian not helping you? Or Kyle?"

"Well, Sebastian buggered off to his room, and Kyle said something about seeing a 'cool rubber dingy' that he wanted", Diego seemed exasperated by the both of them, "Utter madhouse, this place is."

"Less of a madhouse, more like a mad burrow", commented Samuel, "Bit reminiscent of our first home, don't you think?" that last sentence was less of a question, more of an accusation.

"I know, but it's the best we can do."

Samuel just hummed in response, and then stepped to the side when he heard a mechanical pattern of noise behind him. As the mechanical noise moved past him, and then stopped, judging from the way that the sound was bouncing off of a tall object that stood where the sound had ceased, as well as the noise that it made, Samuel could tell that it was a large, humanoidesque machine. Further, judging from the machine posture, which Samuel could tell from an outline of it, which was created against the darkness by the many noises that bounced off of it, he could tell that it was not Kyle, seeing as how the outline of the machine against the black was more rounded, and human sized, rather than Kyle's thin, skeletal outline. The outline of the machine then reached out, holding a cylinder like object, which Diego took, and dipped his finger into the object, letting out a loud sigh. The sound that the object made was a wet, splashing noise. The object must've been a jug of water.

"Ahhh, eso es major", muttered Diego in his first language, before saying, "I burnt my finger. While welding. In case you- In case you were wondering."

"Yes, I had guessed", said Samuel, "I had heard you use explicit language while using a tone of exasperated pain."

" _Sigh_ , of course. Of course you did", said Diego, "You have the hearing of a living... I don't know, something which isn't alive but has really good hearing", he stayed silent for a second, before saying, "Ah, to hell- A greater wax moth."

"The Gralleria mellaneiia."

"It's actually called the Galleria mellonella, actually, but yeah", Diego said, "It's, well, it's not exactly a good example, seeing how I was implying that you were something akin to a non living thing that could hear well, but... You know what? Forget it. I- I killed it. Oh well."

Hm. It's amazing what reading everyday in your spare time would teach you.

Well, that was a bit of a lie. Samuel couldn't read. He was blind, as he was constantly reminded. It mainly consisted of Diego reading out loud to him, and listening to him. Still, they'd done this everyday, for 6 years, so they'd both learnt a lot during that time.

 **"Hey guys! I finally got the damn dingy!"** Samuel recognised that voice. That was Kyle, who was now going by the name of 'Mateuz', without an S, **"Took me half an hour to drag it to the entrance outside! In the freaking rain! Do you know what that does to me! It rusts my freaking joints, let me tell you!"**

"If you're going to whinge about it, then why did you go outside in the first place?" loudly asked Diego, his voice echoed throughout the burrow.

 **"Excuse me! Rubber dingy! Always worth it!"**

"Por amor a Cristo, no sólo entra! Dry yourself off first!"

 **"Boo! Party pooper!"**

"Should we go settle him?" asked Samuel.

"Yeah, that'd probably be best", replied Diego, before Samuel heard him marching off, yelling in his first language, to which Kyle started yelling in his own first language.

Samuel sighed. Well, at least he wouldn't be losing them anytime soon.

* * *

The room smelt like rotten fruit, noxious fumes, oxidised metal, and another odour akin to when fire ignites on petrol. It was bare, cold, and wet, with a constant dripping sound, an electrical buzz, and a stark lack of furniture, or anything else that made the room stand out, save for the metal surfaces, a single lightbulb in the ceiling, and a shattered mirror on one of the wall. The closest thing to a door to the room was a single, large piece of metal that covered a doorway, which had to be manually taken off in order to enter and leave the room. There were shards of pulled up metal, that pierced the skin and drew blood when someone touched them, and in one of the metal panels on the wall, there was a large hole in it, which leaked a small current of rain water and dirt.

John was on the verge of a panic attack when he entered the burrow, and had retreated to this room. The entire layout and feel to the burrow brought back too many memories. Memories that he had constantly tried to forget, but would never leave him. In the middle of the room, he had curled up into a ball, and was rocking himself back and forth, humming a supposedly soothing tune that Raven had sung to him once, while tears rolled down his face, ignoring the sharp piece of splintered metal that had pierced the sole on his foot as he rocked (That splinter of metal had dissolved away, now, in a little puff of steam).

However, at this point, he wasn't really sure what he was having a panic attack about. Was it due to the fact that one of the few people outside of his siblings in arms who he had ever truly cared for was back in his life, now without a doubt completely despising him despite him doing the right thing? Was it due to the fact that this entire home brought back too much trauma, and suffering for him? Was it a mixture of both? Most likely the last one, if he were to be honest.

John didn't understand how the others did it. Jack and Mateuz... Aw fuck it. Samuel and Kyle. They had moved on, from their past. They'd let it go. Diego still had his major misogynistic views on women, even though those reasons were quite justified, but even now, John was feeling like he was beginning to let that go. If he wasn't, then he belongs in the bloody theatre for his acting skills.

John... Sebastian... He couldn't. He just couldn't. He couldn't let his past go. He couldn't just forgive and forget. He couldn't just move on.

It wasn't like he didn't try. Every now and again, Sebastian would try and change himself. He would try and 'see the positive side of things', or whatever happy go lucky bullshit that the others called it. But it never worked. His heart always remained the same; Cold and loveless. The same as it had always been. The same that it would always be.

It took Sebastian 15 minutes to calm himself down. He tried to get himself up, but found himself lacking the motivation to do so. He ended up just laying on the ground for half an hour, alone, dead silent, looking up at the ceiling, and just... staring. Not even thinking. Just staring. Did anyone come to check on him? Did anyone look inside, and see him, just to make sure that he was still alive? Probably not. Samuel would've noticed. Hopefully they didn't. He really wouldn't have wanted them to see him in the state that he was in at that time.

 _Maybe we should leave_ , Sebastian thought to himself, _We shouldn't have come to this place. We should just tell Ellis and Raven that we made a mistake, and just move to a different place. Maybe somewhere deep in one of the Third World countries._

He pondered it for a bit, and then shoved the thought out of his head. He knew how the others would react. Anger, most likely. Not even that. Most probably rage. They were tired of fighting. Tired of running. They wanted to stop, and this place- this place\- represented the best chance of that. They'd be damned if Sebastian told them to pack up and move on.

Sebastian suddenly found the motivation to get up, just so he could walk up to the mirror and take a look at himself in it. Taking off his still damp shirt and his bio-skin, he looked at himself in the mirror.

There they were. The scars. The ugly, painful scars. Each cut that made it's home on his body had it's own story. It's own memories, and Sebastian knew each and every one of them. Most of them weren't good memories. Each scar represented a tale in his life, where everything that could've gone wrong, had gone wrong. He had many tales, embedded in his skin, and he had no doubt that many more stories would follow them-

One of his scars was gone.

One of his scars was gone?

One of his scars was gone.

Sebastian looked to a specific part, on his left side, in his stomach area. There should be a scar there, from his time in Cairo. He remembered each and every scar. Having 'Acquired Savant Syndrome'- as Raven had called it- would do that to you. Thing is, it gave him a banging headache at the end of everyday, so that was, as the Americans called it, a bummer.

Still though, where there should be a scar right there, there was not. The skin looked freshly healed. Brand new, even. So unlike the rest of his body, which was scarred and damaged. What was this? Scars don't magically heal overnight. You didn't need to be a genius to know that. So how could one of his most prominent-

Wait.

Earlier that day, when he had carried that Akihisa boy to the infirmary, he had thought that his hand had glowed. Glowed. Could that have had something to do with it?

It was likely. It seemed a bit too... well, strange, to not be linked, at least a little bit.

Sebastian went back into the middle of the room, and sat back down.

Maybe coming to this place was a mistake after all...

* * *

Deep within the basement, a monster laid.

The metal beast hung up on the ceiling, encased in stone and wires. It's massive limbs were originally multicoloured, but it had faded and rusted away a long time ago. Wiring and entrails hung from the beast, it's metal skin shredded and bruised. Cables reached into it's metal brain, leaching off it like a parasite, a pool of liquid laying on the floor under the behemoth. It's eyes flickered and faded almost every second, but it never moved. It never had the energy or strength to do so.

The behemoth couldn't move, or speak. It was a living corpse, barely kept alive by powers it knew not of. It's mind was the only thing that could still be considered alive, and even then it was barely coherent. It knew not of how it came to make this place it's prison, or why it was still alive. All it could do was reminisce it's glory days, when it made battlefields shake, and warriors turn and flee. It remembered it's master promising glory and Havana. And yet, he was here. Was this it's punishment? Perhaps, but the monster was now too mad to even pay a thought to it, the years (Centuries? Millennia? Eons? It was impossible to tell) of solitude and inprisonment slowly pushing the beast into the murky depths of insanity.

The few that knew of the monster's existence would come to know it as Frankenstein's Monster.

And Frankenstein had come to join it in its solitude.

They asked the beast something. The beast knew not what the question was, but it was not like it mattered anyways. The beast used all of it's strength to let an a barely audible gurgle and a drop of phlegm into the pool.

Thye tried to get an answer proper out of the beast. First, they tried to cajole it into giving an answer. Then they asked firmly. Then they started making threats.

The monster could not reply. It stayed silent. It's mind was filled with thoughts. Thoughts of killing the Frankenstein, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.

The Frankenstein scoffed, and left the room. The monster began to silently scream, begging to not be left alone, and vowing to kill the Frankenstein for all that had been done to it.

It amounted to nothing.

Darkness.

Silence.

Madness.

* * *

"Got a new list here."

"Already? We only just rounded the ones on the last list a few days ago."

"I know, I know, but prices and trade is going down. Not many people want people from the slave trade anymore. Not when the new robots can do their manual labour better, and cheaper, of course. So, yeah, we've got a new list. We'll need them all picked up by the end of the month if we want to keep our profits up."

"Oh, joy... I can't read the last name. Who wrote this?"

"Oh, um, I think Kyo wrote it for me."

"Kyo? He- She- No wait- Zhe wrote this. I thought zhe could write good?"

"That's what it said on zher application."

"Well, maybe you should actually check them. You know, just to make sure that we're not hiring retards who can't fucking write. You're the fucking co-leader of this operation!... _Sigh_ , what's the last name, anyway?"

"Hazuki Shimada."

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **Are my OC characters too Mary Sue like? Because I don't want my OCs to be Mary Sues. That, like, my biggest fear when it comes to writing my stories.**

 **Anyways, first arc down! Wow! leave a review, and let me know what you think! And I'll see you in the next arc: Intersectionality.**

 **Titanmaster117 out!**


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